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J LIBKARY OF CONGRESS. 






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^UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.' 



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The Great Pilot 



HIS LESSONS 



Rev. RICHARD NEWTON, D. D., 

Author of "Rills from the Fountain of Life," "The Best 

Things," "The King's Highway," "The Giants," 

"Safe Compass," "Bible Blessings." 



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NEW YORK: 

ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 

No. 530 Broadway. 

1867. 
V 



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Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1866, by 

ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 

Southern District of New York. 



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Dakin and Met calf. 



PEEFACE. 



The office of a pilot is a very important one. He 
goes on board of a vessel in order to carry her safely 
into the harbor which she desires to enter. There 
are, generally, many rocks and shoals and danger- 
ous places about the entrance to a harbor. The 
captain, who has navigated his vessel across the 
ocean, is not always able to steer it through those 
difficult places. It requires the assistance of some 
one who has made this matter a subject of particular 
study and attention ; who knows just where the deep, 
safe channel lies which the vessel should sail in ; and 
where every rock and shoal lies which must be 
avoided. And this is the pilot's special business. 
For this purpose he takes the entire charge of the 
vessel. The captain gives up the control of it 
to him. He issues all the orders. He tells the 
men what to do ; and it is only by obeying his or- 
ders, by minding his teaching, or following the pilot's 
Wessons that they can get the ship safely into port. 

And this is just what Jesus does for all his people. 
We are here, in this world, like vessels out at sea 
The harbor which we desire to reach is heaven. 

(HI) 



IV PREFACE. 

But there are many dangers to be passed through 
before we can enter that harbor. Without the help 
of a pilot, we never can get safely through those dan- 
gers. But Jesus is the only pilot who can teach us 
how to steer safely past every danger, and enter the 
harbor of heaven. 

When our hearts are changed, and we become the 
servants of Jesus, he comes into our souls, just as 
the pilot goes on board of a vessel, which he is going 
to take into port. And when Jesus comes to us, in 
this way, he comes as " The Great Pilot." His ob- 
ject is to steer our souls safely into heaven. He 
may well be called " The Great Pilot," because his 
wisdom and power and goodness are so great. 

The Bible is the book which he has given us, filled 
with his lessons. In preaching these sermons, at first, 
my chief desire was — and it is the same in printing 
them now — to tell about Jesus, and what he wants 
us to do ; and therefore I have chosen this title for 
my book, — "The Great Pilot, and his Les- 
sons." r. N. 



CO^TEKTS 



Lesson I. Mary's Choice; or, The Good Portion, 9 

Lesson II. Doing for Jesus, 35 

Lesson III. The Best Ornament, .... 65 

Lesson IV. The Prince of Peace, ... 93 

Lesson V. The Best Friend, 123 

Lesson VI. The Secret of Safety, . . . 151 

Lesson VII. The Best Name, 187 

Lesson VIII. A Tree of Life, * 211 

Lesson IX. The Best Aim, 245 

Lesson X. A Heavenly Home, .... 277 



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Mary hath chosen the good part which shall not be taken 
away from her. — Luke 10 : 42. 



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faormfctr. — Zw&e 10 : 42. 

The Mary here spoken of was the sister of 
Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the 
dead. Lazarus had another sister besides 
Mary, and her name was Martha. It seems 
that these two sisters and their brother were 
living together by themselves, having lost 
their parents. The place of their residence 
was the little town of Bethany, a short dis- 
tance from Jerusalem. We are told that 
" Jesus loved Mary, and her sister, and Laza- 
rus." He was very fond of going to their 
house, and stopping there, when he was in that 
part of the country. The last three nights of 



10 THE GREAT PILOT. 

his life, before his crucifixion, he spent with 
this happy family at Bethany. 

Those good sisters both loved Jesus very 
much, but they took a different way of show- 
ing their love. One time, when Jesus was 
making a visit at their house, Martha thought 
she would show Jesus how much she loved 
him, by getting up a nice supper for him, and 
preparing a great many good things for him 
to eat. But Mary thought that Jesus didn't 
care so much about eating and drinking, and 
she chose to show her love to him, by sitting 
down at his feet, and listening attentively to 
what he was saying. By and by, Martha got 
worried about something or other, and when 
she saw Mary sitting quietly down by the side 
of Jesus, she felt vexed. Presently she came 
to Jesus, in rather an ill-humor, and said, 
" Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath 
left me to serve alone ? Bid her, therefore, 
that she help me." I suppose she thought 
that Jesus would feel just as she did about it. 
She, no doubt, expected that he would turn to 
Mary, and say, " Mary, why do you sit idling 



mary's choice. 11 

here ? Do go, and help your sister in her 
work." But, instead of this, Jesus turned to 
Martha, and said, in the way of gentle re- 
proof, " Martha, Martha, thou art careful, 
and troubled about many things. But one 
thing is needful ; and Mary hath chosen that 
good part, which shall not be taken away 
from her." 

The good part which Mary had chosen was 
to love and, serve Jesus. Our sermon to-day is 
about Metros choice ; or, the good portion. 

Suppose that God should send an angel to 
you with an offer of two things ; one of these 
is a fortune of a hundred thousand dollars; 
the other is the grace which will make you a 
Christian, and help you to love and serve Jesus 
here in this life, and then be happy with him 
in heaven at last. Well, the angel comes to 
you and asks you to make your choice. You 
have to make up your mind to take one or the 
other. If you take the money, then that is 
your choice, your part, your portion. If you 
take the grace of God, which will jpaho you a 
Christian, then that is your choice. Like 



12 THE GREAT PILOT. 

Mary, you have chosen the good portion. 
Now, why is that choice, which Mary made, 
called a good part, or a good portion ? This 
is the question for us to consider. I wish to 
speak of four reasons why it may be thus 
called. Remember that Mary's choice was 
loving and serving Jesus. 

The first reason why this is a good choice, or 
portion, is that it is what god wants us to 

CHOOSE. 

God knows what is good for us a great deal 
better than we do. If we only let him choose 
for us, and follow his choice, we shall be sure 
to be satisfied and happy. For instance, when 
God first made the angels, he wanted them 
to live forever with him in heaven, and be 
happy. He gave them all the joys and pleas- 
ures of heaven to make them happy. Surely 
they ought to have been satisfied with this. 
For a while they were all satisfied, and per- 
fectly happy. But after a time some of them 
began to feel dissatisfied with their position. 
They thought they could choose better for 
themselves. They wanted to alter their por- 



mary's choice. 13 

tioii. They did alter it. And what was the 
result ? Instead of being holy angels, living 
in the light and joy and happiness of heaven, 
they became fallen angels, foul fiends, wicked 
devils, and were cast, in chains of dark- 
ness, down to the bottomless pit. But those 
angels who were satisfied with God's choice 
are in heaven yet. They are holy, happy 
angels still. 

And then, you know, in the first chapters of 
the Bible we read about Adam and Eve. G-od 
made them pure and good. He put them in 
the garden of Eden. It was a beautiful place. 
There were soft, velvet lawns, and cool, shady 
groves ; trees bending with rich, ripe fruit, and 
flowers of every kind and description filling 
the air with their delightful fragrance. There 
were fountains playing, and beautiful streams 
gliding softly along, and birds singing in the 
trees, and beasts, not wild, but tame and 
harmless as the gentle lamb, all playing pleas- 
antly around. Oh, what a charming place that 
must have been ! There was every possible 
thing that was necessary to make them happy. 



14 THE GREAT PILOT. 

That was the choice God had made for them, 
and the " good part" or portion which he had 
prepared for them. If they had only been 
satisfied with God's choice, they might have 
remained there to this day perfectly happy. 
They were satisfied and happy for a little 
while. But, by and by, Satan managed to 
get into that happy place. He began slyly 
to talk to them. He tried to make them 
feel dissatisfied with their condition. He told 
them that they could make a wiser choice than 
had been made for them, and secure a better 
part or portion for themselves. They listened 
to his voice. They chose for themselves an- 
other part or portion. And what was the 
result ? They were turned out from that hap- 
py home, — that beautiful garden, — to live 
in this dark world of sorrow, sin, and death ! 

And it is just the same now. Those who 
take what God has chosen for them, — the part 
or portion he has prepared for them, — and 
are satisfied with it, are happy. Those who 
are not satisfied with that, but try to choose 
something different for themselves, are always 
wretched and miserable. 



mary's choice. 15 

Suppose we go into the woods and look at 
the little birds. We hear them sing their 
merry songs as they flit, in the sunlight, from 
tree to tree. We see that they are just as 
happy as they can be. And why ? Because 
they are satisfied with the portion God has 
chosen for them. 

And now, suppose we go out to sea. Our 
vessel is far away from land. We hear one 
of the sailors cry out, " A school of porpois- 
es ! " We go to the bows of the vessel, and 
lean over and look at them. There we see 
hundreds upon hundreds of them. They are 
darting up and down, and playing about, like 
boys or girls just let out of school. Some 
are gliding gently along, while others are 
darting quickly about, as if they were playing 
tag, or hide and seek, in the water. You al- 
most feel as if you would like to be a porpoise 
for about ten minutes, just to take a plunge 
into the water, and join in their fun. They 
are just as happy as fishes can be. And the 
reason of it is that they are satisfied with the 
part or portion that God has chosen for them. 



16 THE GREAT PILOT. 

But suppose that the birds of the air should 
dive into the sea, and try to share in the en- 
joyment of the fishes, — could they be happy 
there ? Of course not. Or suppose that one 
of those porpoises should take a notion to try 
living on dry land awhile. Suppose he should 
try to climb up a tree, and balance himself on 
one of the branches, where the birds feel at 
home, and enjoy themselves so much in sing- 
ing, — do you think the porpoise would find 
any pleasure in it ? Oh, no. It would be per- 
fect misery to him. He would die in the at- 
tempt, unless he could get back to the salt 
water pretty quick. But the little bird is 
happy up there among the trees ; then why 
can't the fish be happy there, too ? Because 
it is not the part or portion which God has 
chosen for him. God has chosen life in the 
air as the portion for the bird ; and this is a 
good part for the bird, because it is God's 
choice for him. And God has chosen life in 
the water as the portion for the fish ; and this 
is a good part for him, for the same reason. 
And the part which Mary chose, loving and 



mary's choice. 17 

serving Jesus, is a good part or portion for us, 

because it is that which Grod wants us to choose. 

The second reason why this is a good part or 
portion for us, is because there is enough in 

IT TO SATISFY OUR SOULS. 

The great reason why so many people are 
unhappy in the world is that they love things, 
and choose them as their portion, that are 
too little to fill their souls and satisfy them. 
The things that we love, and think about most, 
— that we take as our portion, — are to our 
souls just what the things we eat and drink are 
to our bodies. They are the food of our souls. 
And if we don't love the right things, and 
thus get the right kind of food for our souls, 
we can't be happy, any more than we can be 
comfortable if we don't get the right kind of 
food for our bodies, and enough of it. Sup- 
pose you have a glass globe in your dining- 
room with a little gold-fish in it. In the morn- 
ing you drop a crumb of bread, or the leg of a 
fly, or the tiniest little mite of meat into the 
water. The fish will snap it up in a minute. 
It makes a good breakfast of it, and flaps its 



18 THE GREAT PILOT. 

little tail in thankfulness, and feels completely 
happy. But suppose, when you take your seat 
at the table, you find just one little crumb of 
bread for your breakfast, like that you just 
gave the fish. And suppose that was all you 
could get. Would you feel very comfortable ? 
No. You would feel very imcomf or table. 
You would be weak and faint, and hunger 
would be gnawing at your stomach all the 
time. That crumb of bread was not enough 
to fill your stomach and satisfy your hunger. 

There is the little humming-bird. Its body 
is hardly larger than your little finger. It has 
a long, slender bill, like a piece of wire. It 
thrusts this bill into the cup of a flower, two 
or three times, and sips up the honey which it 
finds there, and this gives it a hearty meal, 
that satisfies the humming-bird and makes it 
completely happy. But suppose, now, you 
set that morsel of honey before the huge eagle, 
when he comes swooping down from his home 
on the top of the mountain. Could he make 
a meal of it ? No ; it is not the kind of food 
he wants, and, if it were, there is not enough 
of it. 



mary's choice. 19 

Suppose you stick a fine needle in the end 
of your finger, and squeeze out a drop of 
blood. If a mosquito should light on your 
finger, that drop of blood would make a meal 
that would satisfy him. But let a hungry lion 
come stalking by, lashing his sides with his 
tail, and with fire flashing from his eyes, — 
would he be satisfied with a drop of blood ? 
No. Nothing less than a sheep or a goat or a 
deer would make a meal for him. Well, here 
we see that small bodies are satisfied with a 
small portion of food, while large bodies re- 
quire a large portion of food to satisfy them. 

If I ask you how much food will be enough 
to satisfy an animal, you will want first to 
know how large the animal is. 

And so, if you are asked to tell what will 
make a good portion for a soul, — that is, what 
will be enough to satisfy it and make it happy, 
— you can't tell till you know how large the 
soul is. But how can you tell how large the 
soul is ? We can tell in a minute how large 
our bodies are. We can take the measure of 
the body, from head to foot, and round the 



20 THE GREAT PILOT. 

waist, and tell exactly what its size is. But 
no one ever saw a soul. Is there any way, 
then, of finding out how large the soul is ? 
Yes; we can tell how large it is by finding 
out what will satisfy it or make it happy. I 
do not mean what will satisfy it for an hour or 
a day, or a month or a year, but what will sat- 
isfy it and make it happy while we live, when 
we die, after death, forever. Now tell me, do 
you think one hundred thousand dollars would 
do this ? Would five hundred thousand ? 
Would a million ? Would all the money in the 
world ? Would the whole world and every- 
thing in it ? No. Then, does not this show 
that our souls are very large ? Yes ; they are 
so large that nothing less than God can satisfy 
them. If we love and serve Jesus, this will 
satisfy our souls and make them happy forever. 

" James, come with me," said a gentleman 
to his little boy, one Sunday afternoon ; " I'm 
going to take a walk." 

They started. After walking a while, they 
came to a poor, miserable-looking little house. 
There were only two rooms in it, one above the 



mary's choice. 21 

other. They clambered up a sort of ladder to 
the second story. When they entered that 
room, James thought that it was the poorest 
and most wretched-looking place he had ever 
seen. There was no carpet on the floor. Two 
or three rickety chairs, an old broken table, 
and an old bedstead, to match it, in one corner, 
were all that the room contained. On that 
bed lay a poor old woman. James's father 
went up to the side of the bed, and began to 
talk with the old woman. The little fellow 
was surprised to hear her speak cheerfully 
and seem to be quite happy. After a while, 
James said, — 

" Please, ma'am, will you tell me what it is 
that makes you seem so happy ? You have to 
stay here all by yourself;' you are sick and 
have very little to eat. What is it can make 
you happy ? " 

" My dear child," said she, " I am left alone 
in the world. I am old and poor and sick. 
I often have nothing but dry bread to eat, and 
cold water to drink. Yet I am happy. The 
reason of it is that I love the Lord Jesus Christ. 



22 THE GREAT PILOT. 

I know he loves me, I feel that he is here with 
me ; and this makes me happy. I was just 
thinking, when you came in, of that passage in 
the Bible, in which Jesus says, ' I will be a 
husband to the widow, and a father to the 
fatherless ; ' and I can't tell you how much 
comfort it gave me." 

This old woman had followed Mary's ex- 
ample. She was loving and serving Jesus. 
She had chosen this as her part, or portion, 
and she found it a good part, or portion, be- 
cause there ivas enough in it to satisfy her soul. 

The third reason why this is a good portion is 
that it is so sure. 

When a man becomes very rich, in this 
world, we say he has made his fortune. He 
has got a large amount of money, or property. 
That is called his portion. But how very un- 
certain worldly riches are ! The Bible says, 
they " take to themselves wings and fly away." 
Our hold upon them is not stronger than it 
would be if it was made of that fine, delicate 
thread which the spider weaves. 

I know a clergyman, in our church, who was 



23 



a physician when he was a young man. He 
had married a wife who was very beautiful and 
very rich. He had, through her, a large for- 
tune, or portion of worldly property. He had 
a lovely little babe, too. He had everything 
the world could give to make him happy ; but, 
he was not loving and serving Jesus. Now, 
that young man's part, or portion, seemed 
like a good one ; but, ah ! how uncertain it 
was ! One day a friend was visiting him. He 
showed him his elegant house ; he pointed to 
his lovely wife, and sweet little babe, and said 
to his friend, " I am just as happy as I can 
be." But in one short week from that time, 
that beautiful wife and that lovely babe were 
in their graves. Wife — child — property — 
all gone in a week ! What a sad change for 
that poor young physician ! The worldly por- 
tion that he had chosen seemed to be a good 
one ; but it was not sure. And this is the case 
with all earthly portions. We may have them 
to-day, but no one can tell who may have them 
to-morrow. But if we choose Mary's part, if 
we love and serve Jesus, we choose a portion 



24 THE GREAT PILOT. 

that is good because it is so sure. Jesus said 
of the good part which Mary chose, that "it 
should not be taken away from her." And 
if we make this choice, he will say the same of 
us. If we love and serve Jesus, and commit 
our souls to him, he will take care of us, and 
not let us be lost. Satan may try to entice us 
away from him, but Jesus wont let him suc- 
ceed. If we forget him and fall into sin, 
Jesus will punish us and bring us back to him, 
just as a father does his child when he does 
wrong, but he wont forsake us or suffer us to 
be lost. He wont let the good part be taken 
away from us, after it has once been truly 
chosen. 

Some years ago there was a good minister in 
England whose name was John Newton. He 
had a dream once, which illustrates very nice- 
ly this part of our subject. In his dream Mr. 
N. thought he was on board a ship, which was 
lying at anchor, in the Bay of Naples. He 
was leaning over the side of the vessel, looking 
at the city, which lay off in the distance, with 
Mount Vesuvius behind it, when a beautiful an- 



mary's choice. 25 

gel came to him and gave him a gold ring. He 
told him to take great care of that ring, and 
never to part with it on any account. He said 
that if he kept it safe, he would always be 
happy, and when he died, it would take him 
to heaven. Mr. N. promised the angel that he 
never would part with the ring as long as he 
lived. Then the angel left him. 

Soon after he was gone, another person came 
up to him, looking very different from the 
angel. He entered into conversation with 
Mr. N. By and by he saw the ring which the 
angel had given him upon his finger. Then 
he asked some questions about it. Mr. N. told 
him how the ring was given to him, and 
how his happiness and salvation depended on 
his keeping it safely. The stranger laughed 
at him. Then he told him what a foolish 
thing it was to think that keeping that ring 
would make him happy in this world, or take 
him to heaven at last. He went on talking in 
this way, and said so much about it, that at 
last Mr. N. began to feel ashamed of himself. 
And finally, at the stranger's suggestion, he 



26 THE GREAT PILOT. 

actually took the ring from his finger, and 
dropped it into the sea. 

He had no sooner done so than his tempter 
turned and reproached him for his folly. He 
told him, that in throwing away that ring, he 
had thrown away his happiness, and lost his 
soul. Poor Mr. N. was in great distress. Then 
he dreamed that his angel friend came back. 
He plunged into the water, just where the ring 
had been dropped in. Presently he came up 
with the ring in his hand. Mr. N. shouted 
for joy when he saw the ring, and eagerly 
reached out his hand to take it again. But 
the angel said, " No, I can't trust it to you 
any more. If I should, you might lose it 
again. I will keep it for you, and then it will 
be safe." 

When Mr. N. awoke he saw that this angel 
represented Jesus. The tempter represented 
Satan, and the ring represented the good por- 
tion which he had chosen in becoming a Chris- 
tian. This portion is a good one because it is 
sure. Jesus is the keeper of it, and that 
which he keeps is perfectly safe. The third 



mary's choice. 27 

reason why this is a good portion is that it is 
so sure. 

The fourth and last reason why it is a good 
portion is that it is so lasting. 

Earthly portions never can be made lasting. 
They pass away just like the things that we 
see when we are dreaming. 

There was once a great king. On the day 
on which he was to be crowned, he made a 
grand holiday. The soldiers marched in pro- 
cession round the palace. All the noblemen 
of his kingdom were there, dressed in their 
splendid robes. Bands of music were playing, 
and colors were streaming in the wind, and 
everything looked bright and beautiful. As 
the king looked upon this grand sight, he was 
delighted ; and, turning to one of his attend- 
ants, he said, " Isn't it perfectly glorious ? " 

" Please your Majesty," said the gentleman, 
" one thing is wanting, to make it perfect." 

" What is that ? " asked the king. 

" Continuance" was the answer. 

It wasn't lasting. It wouldn't continue. 
The day would soon pass away. The soldiers 



28 THE GREAT PILOT. 

would go home. The music would stop play- 
ing. The colors would be furled. The nobles 
and princes would go away, and lay aside their 
glittering robes. Dark night would spread 
its gloomy pall over the scene, and all that 
dazzling glory would vanish away. The next 
day it would only be remembered like a 
dream. And it is just so with all earthly por- 
tions. They are not lasting. There are a 
great many beautiful things in this world, but 
they do not last. How beautiful the rainbow 
is, when we see it stretching its great arch 
across the dark clouds, after a storm ! How 
beautiful the flowers are when they come out 
with all their varying colors, and fill the air 
with fragrance ! How beautiful the western 
sky is when the sun is setting, and his beams 
gild all the clouds with glory like that of heav- 
en ! You get up, on one of these cold, winter 
mornings, and go to the window of your cham- 
ber. The frost has been at work there. You 
look at it with delight. There you seem to 
see gardens and forests and houses and tem- 
ples and palaces all glittering and spark- 



mary's choice. 29 

ling as though they were made of diamonds. 
But will any of these things last ? No. While 
you are looking at the rainbow it fades away. 
In a very short time the beautiful flowers all 
wither. As soon as the sun is set, the glory he 
had spread over the clouds grows dim, and 
disappears. Just breathe upon that frosted 
window, and all the beautiful work upon it 
melts away. 

And so it is with the portions that people 
have in this world. They cannot last. But 
if we choose Mary's part, if we love and serve 
Jesus, we have a portion that will last forever. 
How long ? Forever. That is a little word. 
It is soon spoken. But who can tell how long 
forever is ? Suppose that the walls and ceil- 
ing of this church were all made of slate, and 
suppose we should take a pencil and make 
lines of figures, one above the other, till the 
whole surface was covered with these figures. 
What a multitude of them there would be ! 
And suppose that each one of those figures 
should stand for a thousand years ; would that 
make forever ? No. 



80 THE GREAT PILOT. 

When you have been at the seashore you 
have often taken up a handful of sand. Could 
you count how many grains of sand there are 
in a handful ? Could anybody tell how many 
grains of sand there are all round the ocean's 
shore ? But suppose each single grain of sand 
there stood for a thousand years, would that 
be equal to forever ? No, for if one grain of 
sand were taken away from the ocean's shore, 
every one thousand years, the time would 
come at last, when every grain would be gone. 
But that would only be the beginning of for- 
ever. And must not that be a good portion 
that will last as long as this ? Well, if we 
love and serve Jesus we shall have a portion 
of happiness that will last forever. This is a 
good portion because it is so lasting. 

Thus, we have spoken of four reasons why 
this is a good portion. The first is, that it 
is what God wants us to choose. The second is, 
that there is enough in it to satisfy our souls. 
The third is, that it is so sure ; and the fourth 
is, that it is so lasting. 

Now what did Jesus say that Mary did in 



MARY'S CHOICE. 31 

reference to this portion ? He said she had 
chosen it. She thought about it. She prayed 
over it, and then she made up her mind to 
take it as her portion. This means that she 
determined to love and serve Jesus. What- 
ever others did, she resolved to be a Christian. 
And this is what each one of you should do, 
my dear children. You must make this 
choice for yourself. Nobody can make it for 
you. You are old enough to make it, as soon 
as you know that you are a sinner, and that 
Jesus died to save you. You may make the 
choice to-day, if you will. You can't make it 
of yourself, but if you pray to Jesus he will 
help you. There is a beautiful hymn which 
suits very well to finish this sermon with. 
How earnestly I pray that God may teach 
each of you to express your own desire and 
feeling in the language of this hymn, and 
say,— 

" Beset with snares, on every hand, 
In life's -uncertain path I stand ; 
Saviour divine, send down thy light, 
And guide my doubtful footsteps right. 



32 THE GREAT PILOT. 

Engage this young and sinful heart 
To fix on Mary's better part : 
And scorn the trifles of a day, 
For joys that never fade away/' 

" Mary hath chosen that good part which 
shall not be taken away from her." 



II. 

<§0m0 fax <f*s:ws. 

Ye have done it unto me. — Matt. 25 : 40. 



II. 

$fe Irate k 0ne it vmto me. — Matt. 25 : 40. 

Jesus spoke these words. Can you tell me 
where Jesus is now ? In heaven, sitting at the 
right hand of God. Is Jesus ever going to 
come back to this world ? Yes. What will 
he come for ? to judge the world . Yes. 
And when Jesus said, " Ye have done it unto 
me," he was telling his disciples what he would 
do when he came to judge the world. He said 
he would come in the clouds of heaven, with 
power and great glory. All the holy angels 
will come with him. He will sit upon a glo- 
rious high throne. His people will all be 
gathered before him, and he will judge them. 
An account will be given before all the angels 
of heaven, of everything that they have done. 
Jesus will mention all the good things his peo- 
ple have done to show their love for him, as 
for instance when they fed the hungry, and 

(35) 



36 THE GREAT PILOT. 

clothed the naked, and visited the sick, and 
comforted the sorrowing, and made their offer- 
ings to send the gospel to the heathen, and he 
will kindly say, of each of these things, " Ye 
have done it unto me." Oh, how happy it will 
make us feel when we come to stand before 
the judgment-seat of Christ, to have the glo- 
rious Saviour speak of the teachers and schol- 
ars who have given their time and labor and 
money in trying to do good, and hear him say, 
" Ye have done it unto me." Now this doesn't 
mean that giving our money to the poor, or 
any other good deeds that we may do, will take 
us to heaven. Nobody will ever go to heaven 
for any good works they can do. If they could, 
those works would be their Saviour. But Je- 
sus is the only Saviour. If we get to heaven 
at last it will only be because of what Jesus 
has done for us, and not because of anything 
we do ourselves. Well, you may ask, what, 
then, is the use of trying to do good ? Let 
me tell you. In heaven there are some places 
nearer to Jesus than others ; there are some 
golden crowns more beautiful than others, 



DOING FOR JESUS. 37 

more full of bright and sparkling jewels ; and 
those brightest crowns, those places nearest to 
Jesus, will be given to those of his people who 
have done the most to please him, and tried to 
serve him best. Oh, this is reason enough why 
we should try to do all the good we can. 
Nothing done from love to Jesus is ever lost. 
If we give " even a cup of cold water to one 
of the least of his followers we shall in no wise 
lose our reward." Our sermon to-day is about 
doing for Jesus. I wish to give you four rea- 
sons why we should be doing for him. 

The first reason why we should be doing for 

JeSUS is, BECAUSE HE HAS DONE SO MUCH FOR 

US. 

But who can tell how much Jesus has done 
for us ? He made this world for us to live in. 
He hung up that sun yonder, like a great lamp 
in the sky, to give us light. He spread out 
that beautiful sky, to be like a curtain of blue 
over our heads. He spread the green grass 
abroad, to be like a soft velvet carpet under 
our feet. He made the clouds and the stars, 
the hills and the valleys, the trees and the 



38 THE GREAT PILOT. 

flowers, the babbling brooks and the singing 
birds, so that wherever we go we may have 
something pleasant to see and hear. Jesus 
made our parents to take care of us, and our 
friends to be kind to us. Everything pleasant 
and comfortable about us we owe to Jesus. 
And if this were all that Jesus has done for us, 
it would be reason enough why we should do 
all we can for him. But this is not all ; it is 
not half ; it is not the hundredth part of what 
Jesus has done for us. Oh, it was a very easy 
thing for him to make the world and all that 
is in it. This only cost him a little breath. 
All he had to do was just to speak, and it was 
done exactly as he wanted it. He said, " Let 
there be light," and in a moment " there was 
light." " Let there be trees," and at once the 
trees appeared, full-grown. " Let there be flow- 
ers," and at his word ten thousand different 
kinds of flowers came forth, smiling in their 
loveliness. It didn't cost Jesus much to make 
us. But, when we had ruined ourselves by 
sin, he undertook to save us, and that cost him, 
we never can begin to tell how much. See, 



DOING FOR JESUS. 39 

yonder is a stable, away over in Bethlehem of 
Judea. A father and mother are sitting by 
the manger in that stable. In that manger a 
dear little babe is lying. And now look again. 
Some travellers come in. They are weary with 
their journey. Their home is far away in the 
East, hundreds of miles off. They have come 
to see this child, and bring presents of gold and 
spices to him. Yonder, outside of the town, 
are some shepherds keeping watch over their 
flocks by night. A bright light begins to shine 
around them. They hear voices speaking 
over their heads. They look up, and there is 
a company of angels. They have come from 
heaven to tell the shepherds about the birth 
of that child. What a wonderful child that 
is ! Look at it as it lies sleeping there in the 
manger! It is just as weak and helpless as 
any other infant, and yet that child is the great 
Gfod : that child is Jesus. He had always 
been in heaven before, where the angels of 
God worshipped him. Now he has become a 
helpless babe, the child of poor parents, and is 
lying with the beasts of the stall. It was nee- 



40 THE GREAT PILOT. 

essary that our Saviour should come into the 
world in this way ; and Jesus was willing to do 
it that he might save us. And then he lived 
here for more than thirty years, so poor that 
he had no house of his own. He slept on 
other people's beds, and ate at other people's 
tables all his days, although he owned the 
whole world, and everything in it. How won- 
derful this was ! And then, for years, he went 
about teaching and preaching and doing good. 
Then he was taken prisoner, and beaten on the 
bare back with cruel rods. They mocked him ; 
they persecuted him ; they put a crown of 
thorns on his head ; they smote him ; they spat 
upon him ; they nailed him to the cross. He 
died a dreadful, lingering, torturing death. 
And he bore all this willingly to save our souls 
from hell. This is what Jesus did for us that 
we might go to heaven. How wonderful his 
love for us must have been ! And when we 
think of all he has done for us, surely we 
should be glad to do all we can for him. This 
is the first reason we should be doing for Je- 
sus, because he has done so much for us. 



DOING FOR JESUS. 41 

The second reason why we should do so is, be- 
cause of THE HONOR OF DOING FOR HIM. 

When Queen Victoria rides to the House of 
Parliament, on some great occasion, she wears 
her royal robes and the splendid crown of 
England, all sparkling with its rich jewelry, and 
she looks very grand. Suppose that you were 
in the crowd, admitted to the House of Parlia- 
ment, on one of those occasions. You are 
standing not very far from the queen. By 
and by she looks toward you, and beckons you 
to come to her. You go up to the throne 
where she is sitting, and she asks you to get 
her a drink of water. Of course the queen 
never would do anything of the kind, for there 
are lords and ladies appointed to wait upon 
her, and get for her everything she wants. 
But I dim, just supposing a case, for the sake of 
illustration ; and when we are supposing a 
case, we have a right to say anything that we 
please. You hand the queen a drink, in a 
golden cup, upon a golden waiter. When she 
has done drinking, she asks you to please stand 
there and fan her. You stand there and fan 



42 THE GREAT PILOT. 

her till the business is all accomplished, and 
the queen retires. Now, with our plain Amer- 
ican notions, you might not think so much of 
this, but if you were an English boy or girl, 
you would think a wonderful deal of it. You 
would have done something for the queen that 
she had asked you to do. You would think 
that a great honor. Your name would be pub- 
lished in the papers the next day, as the boy 
c girl who fanned the queen when she was in 
■*.fie House of Parliament. People in England 
think it the greatest honor they can have, to 
get near the queen and do anything for her. 
But what is Queen Victoria, or what are all 
the monarchs in the world, put together, in 
comparison with Jesus ? Jesus is our king. 
He is the king of heaven, as well as of earth. 
The angels worship him. He is the owner and 
ruler of all the worlds in the universe. Who 
can tell what an honor it is to be permitted to 
do anything for him ? But when we have 
done anything for his poor, suffering people, 
Jesus says to us, " Ye have done it unto me." 
This is real honor : it is " the honor that Com- 
eth from God." 



DOING FOR JESUS. 43 

Some years ago, there was a distinguished 
military officer in England, whose name was 
Sir Ralph Abercrombie. He was a pious man, 
a member of the Presbyterian Church. When 
residing at the old family residence in Scot- 
land, he was appointed an elder in the parish 
church in which he worshipped. One of the 
duties of an elder in the Presbyterian Church 
is, on communion days, to carry the bread and 
wine from the minister and put them into the 
hands of the members. When this brave and 
distinguished soldier heard of his appointment 
to this office, he wrote a note to his minister in 
these words : — 

" Reverend Sir, — I have been intrusted by 
my king with many honorable and important 
offices in my profession as a soldier ; and his 
majesty has been pleased to reward my ser- 
vices with distinguished honors ; but to be 
permitted to put the bread and wine — the 
tokens of my Saviour's dying love — into the 
hands of one of the least of his followers, I 
consider to be the highest honor I can receive 
on this side of heaven." And the reason why 



44 THE GREAT PILOT. 

this brave soldier thought it such an honor 
was, that he was doing it for Jesus. 

Some years ago an humble, but faithful 
minister of the gospel, went to Washington 
and called on the President. He did not call 
to ask an office, but to see the President. 
That President was a Christian man. He and 
this good minister had been brought together, 
some years before, under circumstances which 
made them love each other very much, and be- 
come real, warm-hearted friends for life. The 
President received him very kindly, and in- 
sisted on his coming to stay at the White 
House, while he was in Washington. He was 
put to lodge in the room in which General 
Harrison and General Taylor had died, while 
they were presidents. There the President 
would sometimes come to see him, toward 
midnight, and they would sit alone while talk- 
ing together, not about politics, but about re- 
ligion, about Jesus and his love, the things he 
has done for his people already, and the things 
he is going to do for them hereafter. 

One morning, when the minister was going 



DOING FOR JESUS. 45 

out, the President told hini he expected to 
have a public reception at twelve o'clock, 
when great crowds of people would come to 
see him, and he asked him to stay and help 
him receive his company. Of course he did 
so. He returned to the library, and waited 
till near noon. Then the President called for 
him, and they walked together towards the 
splendid East Room, in which the President is 
accustomed to receive his company. A great 
number of people were already on the outside 
of the house, waiting for the hour of admis- 
sion. The President and his friend, the hum- 
ble minister, were walking up and down the 
room, arm in arm, each occupied with his 
own thoughts. The minister was thinking of 
the exalted position of the man at his side. 
He was saying to himself, " He is called to 
preside over a vast and powerful country. 
Now he is waiting for the entrance of some of 
the greatest and most distinguished people in 
the land, who are coming to honor him by 
paying him their respects. What a happy 
man he must be ! He has reached the high- 



40 THE GREAT PILOT. 

est position in the world. There is no nobler 
office than to be the president of a great and 
prosperous nation ! " 

The minister had not said a word ; he had 
only been quietly thinking these thoughts. 
But the President seemed to understand what 
he was thinking about ; for he kindly laid his 
arm on his friend's shoulder, and said : — 
" Yet, after all, my friend, the man who 
preaches the gospel, and wins men to heaven has 
the highest office on earth" 

But the reason why the office of the minis- 
try is so honorable is, that it is an office all the 
service of which is done unto Jesus. But 
when others, who are not ministers, do any- 
thing for Jesus, they share in the same honor. 
When we make our offerings to help the poor, 
the sick, the sorrowing, or to send the gos- 
pel to the heathen, we seem to hear our Sa- 
viour say, " Ye have done it unto me." 
There is great honor in this. We should do 
what we can for Jesus, because of the honor of 
doing for him. 

Another reason why we should do for Jesus is 
because of the pleasure of doing for him. 



DOING FOR JESUS. 47 

When we love anybody very much there is 
no greater pleasure in the world than to be 
doing anything we can for that person. When 
a mother has a dear little baby to attend to, 
she feels perfectly happy while nursing and 
dressing it, rocking it to sleep, and doing 
everything for it that she can*. The baby may 
be very cross and fretful, it may cry and 
scream ever so much, but the mother pets and 
fondles it, and never gets tired of doing for it. 
You go to that mother, and ask her to go out 
on a pleasure-party, and leave her baby with 
you, and, if she is a real, true mother, she will 
say to you, " Thank you, but I'd rather not 
go. My greatest pleasure is to be with my 
dear child and take care of it." And if that 
mother is very poor, and has to work hard all 
day, how gladly she will do that work, be- 
cause she feels that she is doing it for her 
darling child ! And when she comes home at 
night, and takes the baby up in her arms, and 
he looks up into those loving eyes and smiles, 
she presses him to her bosom, and what pleas- 
ure she has when she thinks that what sha 



48 THE GREAT PILOT. 

has been doing all day she has been doing for 
that dear child ! What a blessed thing it is 
that God has made a mother's love for her 
children so very strong ! Our mothers have 
so many things that are hard and disagreeable 
to do for us when we are little, that nothing 
but their great love for us would lead them to 
do those things. But a mother's love makes 
everything that she does for her child a pleas- 
ure. 

And so it is with husbands and wives, and 
brothers and sisters, when they really love one 
another. You know we read in the Bible 
about Jacob. When he was a young man he 
went to make a visit to his Uncle Laban, and 
stayed there a long time. While he was there, 
he fell in love with his Cousin Rachel, who 
was a remarkably beautiful girl. Jacob asked 
his Uncle Laban if he might marry Rachel and 
have her for his wife. In those Eastern coun- 
tries it was customary then, and is so still, for 
a young man, when he asked of a father permis- 
sion to marry his daughter, to make a valuable 
present to the father. But Jacob was a poor 



DOING FOK JESUS. 49 

young man. He had a rich father, indeed, but 
he had set out to make his own fortune, and 
was not willing to go and ask his father's help. 
He had no money to give his Uncle Laban ; 
so he offered to work for him for seven years 
as a shepherd. The life of a shepherd, in 
those days, was very hard and toilsome. He 
had to be out day and night, winter and 
summer, taking care of his flocks. And seven 
years were a long while to keep on working 
all the time. And yet we read that those 
seven long years seemed " but a few days to 
Jacob, because of his love for Rachel." When 
he was tired with his hard work, when he was 
exposed to the heat of summer or to the cold 
of winter, he would think to himself, " I 
am doing this for my dear Rachel ; " and that 
thought would lighten his labor, and make 
everything he did a pleasure. 

But no mother ever loved a child, and no 
husband ever loved a wife, as Jesus loves all 
his people. And when we learn to know him 
truly, we shall love him better than we love 
any one else. And if we do love him so, this 

4 



50 THE GREAT PILOT. 

will make it a pleasure for us to do anything 
for him. 

Some time ago a missionary meeting was 
held at a small town in England. At the 
close of the meeting a poor widow woman, 
one of the very poorest in the parish, went up 
to the minister and offered him a sovereign, — 
that is, a gold piece worth about five dollars. 
The minister knew the deep poverty of her 
condition, and declined to receive it. He told 
her she should not think of giving so much, 
for he knew she could not afford it. The 
poor woman looked sad and seemed greatly 
disappointed. " sir," she said, " I have 
often given copper to my Saviour ; and two or 
three times I had the pleasure of giving sil- 
ver ; but it has been my earnest desire to have 
the great happiness of giving some gold to 
Jesus once before I die. I have long been 
engaged in saving every little mite that I 
could spare that I might give this sovereign 
to Jesus, to-night. sir, you must take it 
for Jesus' sake ! " 

Of course the minister could not resist such 



DOING FOR JESUS. 51 

an appeal. He took the widow's gold, and 
that poor woman went to her humble home 
that night, feeling that she was one of the hap- 
piest persons in the town. She had done what 
she could. She had given the best she had, 
a golden sovereign, — the only one she had, — 
to her Saviour. She had done it unto Jesus, 
and she felt perfectly happy in doing it. We 
ought to do all we can for Jesus, because of 
the pleasure it affords. 

The only other reason I will speak of why we 
should be doing for Jesus is because of the 

PROFIT IT YIELDS. 

Some masters are very hard to serve. They 
try to get all the work they can out of people, 
and give them as little as possible in return. 
But it is very different with Jesus. He is the 
best master that any one can ever serve. 
When anybody is trying to do anything for 
him, he always takes hold and helps them him- 
self, so as to make the work light, and then 
he rewards them in such a way as nobody else 
can ever do. When Jesus was on earth he 
told his disciples that when they did anything 



52 THE GREAT PILOT. 

out of love to him, or met with any loss on his 
account, he would make it up to them a hun- 
dred fold in this life, and in the world to come 
he would give them everlasting life. 

Now to be paid over a hundred fold for 
what we do for Jesus is certainly a great prof- 
it. Let me show you how those who do 
anything for Jesus find profit in it here in 
this world. 

One of the best kings that ever sat on the 
throne of England was Alfred the Great. Yet 
he had a great deal of trouble. The Danes 
overrun his kingdom; he was obliged to 
flee and live in the forest in disguise. One 
day when he was living thus, there came a 
beggar to his door, and asked for bread. The 
queen told Alfred that one loaf of bread was 
all they had, and she knew not when they 
would get any more. 

" Give the poor man half the loaf," said 
Alfred. He who could feed five thousand 
with five loaves and two small fishes, can cer- 
tainly make a loaf last for us till we get a 
fresh supply." So the beggar got half the loaf. 



DOING FOR JESUS. 53 

And what did the great and good Alfred get ? 
His servants came in, soon after, with an 
abundant supply ; and a favorable change took 
place in his affairs, and before long he re- 
covered the possession of his kingdom. 

Surely Alfred the Great was rewarded a 
hundred fold for that kind act. He did it to 
the Lord, and he found that there was profit 
in doing it to him. 

I was reading lately about a good, faithful 
Christian man, who had a friend that was a 
philosopher, a very learned man. This good 
man often tried to persuade the philosopher to 
become a Christian. " If I become a Chris- 
tian," said he, " I'm afraid I shall lose all I 
have in the world." 

" Don't be afraid of that," replied the 
Christian. " Nobody ever lost by doing any- 
thing for Jesus. And if you should lose any- 
thing on his account, he is sure to make it up 
to you a hundred fold in the end." 

"Well," said the philosopher, " are you 
willing to sign a bond, — a written agree- 
ment, — in the name of Christ, that if I be- 



54 THE GREAT PILOT. 

come a Christian, you will make up to me any 
loss I may suffer for the sake of Christ, if he 
does not make it up himself? " 

" Yes," said the Christian, " I am perfectly 
willing to do that." So the writing was 
signed, and the philosopher said he would try 
to become a Christian. So he began diligently 
to read his Bible, and earnestly to pray to God 
to change his heart, and make him a true 
Christian. God heard his prayer. He sent 
his Holy Spirit to change the man's heart, and 
he became a real Christian. A good while 
after this, that philosopher was taken sick. 
The doctor said he could not live. He sent 
for his Christian friend, who had signed the 
bond, to come and see him. When he came 
in the dying man had the bond in his hand. 
He handed it to his friend, saying : — " Take 
this bond and tear it up. I release you from 
your promise. Jesus has made up to me a 
hundred fold for all I ever did or suffered on 
his account. There is nothing left for you to 
pay. Tell everybody how true it is that there 
is great profit in serving Jesus." 



DOING FOR JESUS. 55 

Some years ago there lived a barber, in the 
city of Bath, in England. For a long time he 
had been in the habit of keeping his shop 
open on Sunday. After a while he became a 
Christian. Then he felt that he must stop 
breaking the Sabbath, and close his shop on 
Sunday. Yet he was afraid to do it. He 
thought, if he did so he should offend his cus- 
tomers and lose all his business. He went to 
consult his minister. He advised him to close 
his shop on the Sabbath, and trust God to take 
care of him. He did so. But it turned out 
just as the barber expected. His genteel cus- 
tomers were offended. Because he wouldn't 
shave them on Sunday, they refused to come to 
him through the week. He lost his business. 
He was obliged to give up his fashionable shop, 
and open a poor cellar, where he hardly did 
business enough to get himself bread to eat. 
Well, what then ? Did God's promise fail in 
the case of the poor barber? Did he suffer 
loss instead of securing profit, by shutting up 
his shop on the Sabbath, for the sake of Jesus ? 
Wait a little and see. 



56 THE GREAT PILOT. 

One Saturday evening, about dark, a strange 
gentleman, who had just arrived in the mail- 
coach, asked for a barber. One of the hostlers 
pointed him to the cellar opposite. He came 
in hastily, and asked to be shaved quickly, 
while they were changing horses, as it would 
be too late at night when he reached the end 
of his journey, and he did not like to break 
the Sabbath. This touched the barber's feel- 
ings, so that he could not help weeping. He 
asked the stranger to lend him a penny to 
buy a candle, as it was not light enough to 
shave him. The gentleman gave it, pitying 
the great poverty of the poor barber. When 
he was shaved he said to him, " It seems to 
me, my friend, that there is something strange 
in your history, which I have not time now to 
hear. Here is half a crown for you. When I 
come back this way I would like to see you 
again. What is your name ? " 

" William Reed." 

The gentleman started, and exclaimed, 
" William Reed ? Are you from the west of 
England ? " 



DOING FOR JESUS. 57 

" Yes, sir ; from Kingston, near Taunton." 

" What was your father's name ? " 

" Thomas ? " 

" Had he any brother ? " 

" Yes, sir ; one, after whom I was named ; 
but he went to the East Indies, and as we 
never heard from him, we suppose him to be 
dead." 

" Come along with me," said the gentle- 
man. " I am going to see a person who claims 
to be William Reed, of Kingston, near Taun- 
ton. If you can prove that he is an impos- 
tor, and that you are the person I am seeking, 
I have glorious news for you. Your uncle is 
dead, and has left an immense fortune, which 
I will hand over to you, as soon as I am sure 
that you are the William Reed I am seeking." 

The barber went with the gentleman. He 
had no difficulty in proving that he was the 
real William Reed, and his uncle's large for- 
tune was soon put into his possession. How 
strange this was! God brought it about in 
such a way as to reward him for his faithful- 
ness. When he resolved to shut up his shop 



58 THE GREAT PILOT. 

on Sunday, he was doing something for Jesus. 
It seemed, at first, as if he was going to suffer 
a great loss for what he had done. But, in 
the end, you see, he was rewarded more than 
a hundred or a thousand fold. For if he had 
not shut up his shop on Sundays, he would not 
have lost his customers. And if he had not 
lost his customers, he would not have been in 
that cellar, — so poor as to have to beg a penny 
to buy a candle ; and if it had not been for 
this, the gentleman who had charge of his 
uncle's fortune would not have found him out. 
And so, we may say, that all that property 
came to him as a reward for what he did for 
Jesus when he closed his shop on Sunday. 
Certainly that barber had reason to say that 
there is profit in doing for Jesus. 

But Jesus can reward people a hundred fold 
for what they do or what they lose on his ac- 
count, without giving them money. He can 
make them feel so happy in loving him that 
they wont mind the loss of their property at 
all. St. Paul lost all he had in the world 
for the sake of Jesus. But he said that loss 



DOING FOR JESUS. 59 

was a gain, for in loving Jesus he felt happier 
without the things he had lost, than all the 
things in the world could make him without 
Jesus. 

A Christian man was on his death-bed a 
short time since. A friend was sitting by his 
bedside. He said to that friend, — 

" I have lost all my property ; I have lost 
all my relations ; my last son is dead. I have 
lost my hearing ; I have lost my eyesight ; I 
am old and poor, and all alone ; but yet I am 
happy for Jesus is with me. Jesus never for- 
sakes me ; Jesus never grows old ; Jesus is 
never poor ; Jesus never dies ; Jesus can make 
me perfectly happy in himself without any- 
thing else." 

Oh, it is worth while to know, and love, 
and serve such a Saviour. There is profit in 
doing for him. 

There is profit here on earth in doing for 
Jesus. But the greatest profit is in heaven. 
How great that is I can't tell. Nobody can 
tell. 

One Sabbath evening a missionary, on one 



60 THE GREAT PILOT. 

of the South Sea Islands, went to the dying 
bed of one of his converts. The dying man 
said to him, " I understand you have been 
preaching about heaven to-day. To-morrow 
I expect to be in heaven. When I get there 
I shall go right to the Saviour and thank him 
for putting it into your heart to leave your 
home, in a Christian land, and come here, to 
tell us, poor ignorant heathen, about him and 
his wonderful love in dying for us. Then I 
will go and sit down by the pearly gate and 
wait till you come. And, when you come, I 
will take you by the hand and lead you to 
Jesus, and tell him, ' This is the man that 
taught me the way to this happy world.' ' 
Ah ! what profit that good missionary will 
then find in what he did for Jesus ! 

We have had four reasons why we should 
be doing for Jesus. The first is because he 
has done so much for us. The second, because 
of the honor of doing for him. The third, be- 
cause of the pleasure ; and the fourth, because 
of the profit of doing for him. 

In making our offering or rendering our 



DOING FOR JESUS. 61 

service to Jesus, it is very sweet to think that 
he is pleased with what we are doing, and is 
saying to us, " Ye have done it unto me." 
Blessed Jesus, accept all our services and our 
offerings ! And give us grace that " whatever 
we do we may do it unto thee ! " If we do 
this, my dear children, we shall live useful, 
happy lives, and at last we shall receive an 
abundant reward from Jesus in heaven. 



III. 



The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is, in the 
sight of God, of great price. — 1 Peter 3: 4. 



III. 

W%t ornament of a meek anb qniei spirit, mjjicfr is, in % sig^t 
of (Sob, of great price. — 1 Peter 3 : 4, 

This verse has something to say about a 
particular kind of ornament. Ornaments are 
things which people put on to make themselves 
look well. If you could count up all the orna- 
ments used in the world, how many they 
would be ! And if we could have them all 
spread out before us, so that we could exam- 
ine them, how wonderfully different we should 
find them ! Among ourselves, the ladies wear 
as ornaments, silks and satins, feathers and 
flowers, and pearls and jewels. The gentle- 
men wear cravats and collars, guard-chains 
and rings, and canes and mustaches, and 
many such like things. The prophet Isaiah 
mentions a long list of curious ornaments 
which the Jewish ladies used to wear in his 
day. Among these he speaks of " tinkling 
ornaments about the feet ; and cauls and round 

(65) 



66 THE GREAT PILOT. 

tires like the moon ; and chains and bracelets ; 
and mufflers and head-bands ; and tablets and 
ear-rings and nose-rings ; and wimples and 
crisping-pins ; and hoods and vails." How 
very strangely some of these things sound to 
us ! We can't tell even what they mean. 

Our American Indians, we know, used to 
hang on their belts the scalps of their enemies, 
whom they had slain in battle, and thought 
that these were beautiful ornaments. The 
African chiefs make necklaces of the teeth and 
skulls of their enemies, and hang these round 
their necks as the prettiest ornaments they 
can wear. The Hottentots smear their naked 
bodies with a mixture of grease and red paint, 
and then imagine that they look particularly 
fine. The New-Zealanders tattoo their faces ; 
while the Chinese think that for ladies to have 
little, tiny feet, like a baby's, which they can't 
walk with, is the 'very nicest kind of an orna- 
ment. 

In England, many years ago, it used to be 
considered a great ornament to wear shoes 
with long, pointed toes that would curl up 



THE BEST ORNAMENT. 67 

like a dog's tail. At one time, too, it was the 
fashion for gentlemen to wear pantaloons 
stuffed with cotton, till they swelled out very 
much beyond their natural size. When the 
ladies saw the gentlemen looking so large, 
they thought they must try and keep up with 
them, so they began to wear the hooped skirts, 
and thus they got ahead of the gentlemen. 
This custom, which has come up again in our 
times, is only an old fashion revived. 

If we could make a collection of all the or- 
naments ever used, by different nations, in 
different ages of the world, what a curious 
and interesting museum it would form ! But 
among all the ornaments ever invented for 
the body, there would be nothing found to 
compare, for a moment, with the ornament for 
the soul, of which the apostle speaks in our 
text. This is the Bible ornament. It is the 
ornament which God desires to have us wear. 
It is worth all the other ornaments in the 
world put together. It is " the ornament of 
a meek and quiet spirit." This is the best 
ornament. I want to give you jive reasons 



G8 THE GREAT PILOT. 

why it is so. But before beginning these 
reasons, let us see if we understand what 
meekness, or a meek spirit, is. A minis- 
ter once asked the children of his Sunday 
school this question : " Children, who are 
the meek ? " A little boy present gave him 
this answer: "They are those who give soft 
answers to rough questions." 

There was an excellent minister in Eng- 
land, a good while ago. A wicked man, who 
went to his church, was very much offended 
by something the minister once said in his 
sermon. Shortly after, he met the minister in 
the street, when he struck him a heavy blow 
in the face, and knocked out two of his teeth. 
Without getting angry, the good man held 
the teeth out in his hand, and quietly said, 
" See here, my friend, you have knocked out 
two of my teeth without any just cause ; but 
if it would do your soul any good I would 
gladly let you knock out all the rest of them." 
This minister had on the " ornament of a 
meek and quiet spirit," and how beautiful it 
looks upon him ! 



THE BEST ORNAMENT. 69 

Meekness, or a meek spirit, means pa- 
tience under injuries, or not being easily- 
provoked. 

This is the best ornament. Now let us see 
some of the reasons why it is so. 

" A meek and quiet spirit" is the best or- 
nament, in the first place, because jesus wore 
it. 

When Jesus was on earth, he invited sin- 
ners to come to him and learn of him ; and 
the reason why he urged them to do this was, 
said he, " because I am meek and lowly in 
heart." When the prophet Isaiah was speak- 
ing of Jesus, hundreds of years before his 
birth, he said, " He shall not strive nor cry, 
neither shall any man hear his voice in the 
streets : a bruised reed shall he not break, 
and the smoking flax shall he not quench." 
This means that he should be what we call 
him in that sweet and simple hymn that we 
learn in our early years, 

" Gentle Jesus, meek and mild." 

In another place the same prophet says of 



70 THE GREAT PILOT. 

him, " He is brought as a lamb to the slaugh- 
ter, and as a sheep before her shearers is 
dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." Look 
at the treatment which Jesus received from 
those whom he came to save. They called 
him hard names ; they told falsehoods about 
him ; they said he was a glutton, and a drunk- 
ard, and even that he had a devil ; they drove 
him out of their cities ; they took him up, as 
if he had been a thief and a robber; they 
bound him ; they mocked him ; they put a 
purple robe and a crown of thorns upon him ; 
they spat upon him ; they smote him with the 
palms of their hands ; they stripped him of his 
clothing ; they tore his blessed body with cruel 
scourges ; they condemned him to death ; 
they nailed him to the cross, and mocked 
him and made sport of him as he was hang- 
ing there, in dreadful agony, bleeding and 
dying. And how did he act towards them ? 
He never spoke one unkind or angry word. 
" When he was reviled, he reviled not again." 
He was gentle and kind to all. He prayed 
for his murderers. As he hung upon the 



THE BEST ORNAMENT. 71 

cross, with the blood streaming from his torn 
and mangled limbs, and his body all tortured 
with those dreadful wounds, he cried, " Fa- 
ther, forgive them ; for they know not what 
they do ! " Oh, how meek and quiet the spirit 
of Jesus was ! He always wore this best orna- 
ment. And how beautiful it looks, as we thus 
see him wearing it ! None ever had so much 
of this lovely spirit as appeared in Jesus. 
And he did all this to set us an example. He 
wore this ornament to show us how beautiful 
it is, and to lead us to put it on and wear it. 
In earthly courts it is customary for the 
king, or the king's son, to set the fashion for 
the nobility and gentry of the kingdom. In 
England, whatever style of dress or kind of or- 
nament is worn by the Prince of Wales, who 
is the eldest son of the queen, is taken up at 
once, and worn by all the gentlemen about 
the court. But Jesus is the leader, in this re- 
spect, whom we should desire to follow. He 
wore the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, 
and this is a good reason why we should wear 
it. 



72 THE GREAT PILOT. 

This is the best ornament, because Jesus 
wore it. This is the first reason. 

But " a meek and quiet spirit " is the best 
ornament, in the second place, because it is SO 

USEFUL. 

This ornament is useful in two ways. One 
way in which it is useful is by making those 
who wear it contented and happy themselves. 
It is not the amount of money or property that 
people have which will make them happy, but 
the state of their own hearts and feelings. 
There is Haman, of whom we read in the 
Bible. He was the next man to Ahasuerus, 
the greatest king then living in the whole 
world. Haman had all the riches and honors 
and pleasures that he could ask or desire. He 
had splendid ornaments to put on and wear ; 
but, because he had not " the ornament of a 
meek and quiet spirit," he was unhappy. 
When he rode out in his magnificent chariot, 
the people used to do him honor, by bowing 
down to him. But there was one poor Jew, 
named Mordecai, who refused to do this ; 
and, because he wouldn't do it, Haman wor- 



THE BEST ORNAMENT. 73 

ried, and fretted, and made himself perfectly 
miserable. 

Now let me show you how happy persons 
may be, who are very differently situated 
from Hainan, if they only have " the orna- 
ment of a meek and quiet spirit." 

There was a good minister in England, 
some years ago, named the Rev. H. Venn. 
One day he told his children that he was go- 
ing to take them to the most interesting sight 
in the world. He would not tell them what 
it was, but in the evening he led them to a 
miserable hovel. The windows were broken, 
the walls were crumbling down, and every- 
thing about it told of poverty and want. 
When he reached the door, he said, " My 
dear children, you will hardly think it possible 
that any one, living in such a wretched place 
as this, can be happy. But let me tell you 
that there is a young man lying here, on a 
miserable straw-bed, dying of disease. He is 
but nineteen years of age, yet he has a dread- 
ful fever, and is afflicted with nine painful 
sores or ulcers." 



74 THE GREAT PILOT. 

" Poor man ! how wretched he must be ! " 
exclaimed the children. 

" I want you to see for yourselves how it is 
about that," said their father. 

He then led them into the hovel, and, 
speaking to the sick man, whom he had often 
visited, he said, " My friend, I have brought 
these children here to show them that it is 
possible to be in a state of disease and poverty 
and want, and yet to be happy. Now please 
to tell them what you think about it." 

" Oh, yes, sir ! " said the dying youth, with 
a sweet smile. " I would not exchange my 
state with that of the richest and healthiest 
person on earth, who does not know and love 
my Saviour. Blessed be God ! I have a good 
hope, through Jesus, of entering into those 
heavenly mansions where Lazarus now dwells, 
having long since forgotten all his sorrows and 
miseries. This sickness and poverty are noth- 
ing to bear while Jesus is with me. Indeed, 
sir, I am truly happy, and I hope to be happy 
forever. I thank God every hour for making 
me a Christian." 



THE BEST ORNAMENT. 7b 

Here was a man with " the ornament of a 
meek and quiet spirit ; " and you see how use- 
ful that ornament was to him in making him 
Contented and happy. 

But there is another way in which this orna- 
ment is useful, and that is by helping us to make 
others good and happy too. 

Some ornaments which people wear, not 
only do no good, but they do a great deal of 
harm. They make some people, who see them 
worn, feel discontented and unhappy, because 
they can't wear them. Sometimes these orna- 
ments will tempt persons to steal money, or 
do wrong things, in order that they may get 
them too. But " the ornament of a meek and 
quiet spirit" never had this effect on any one. 
If we wear this ornament, we may be sure it 
will never do anybody any harm, while it often 
does people a great deal of good. Now let me 
show you how much good one boy did to 
another by wearing this ornament. 

Once upon a time, as the old stories used 
to begin, several gentlemen were talking 
round the table in the house of a friend. 



76 THE GREAT PILOT. 

By and by one of them said to the others, 
" Depend upon it, a gentle spirit is a mighty 
cure-all." There was a little boy sitting in 
the corner of the room, learning his Latin 
grammar. He heard these words of the gen- 
tleman, and repeated them to himself, — "A 
gentle spirit is a mighty cure-all." The gen- 
tleman turned round to see who was repeating 
his words, and said, " Yes, that's it ; don't 
you think so, my little man ? " 

The boy blushed a little, at finding himself 
spoken to, and said, " I don't think I under- 
stand what you mean, sir." 

" Well, then, I'll explain it to you," said 
the gentleman ; " for it's a principle you ought 
to understand and act upon. It's a principle 
that is going to conquer the world ; and I 
don't know that I could explain it to you bet- 
ter than by telling you about the way in which 
it conquered me." 

" My father was an officer in the army, and 
he thought the best way to settle everything 
was by fighting. If a boy ever gave me a 
saucy word he would say to me, ' Fight him, 
Charley, fight him.' 



THE BEST ORNAMENT. 77 

" By and by I was sent to a famous school, 
and it so happened that my seat in school was 
next to a boy named Tom Tucker. When I 
found that he was a poor boy, and lived in a 
very humble dwelling, I began to put on airs 
before him, and strut about, and talk of what 
my father had, and how he lived. But Tom 
was a capital scholar, very much liked by the 
other boys, and an excellent hand at playing 
bat and ball, and so, for a while, we were on 
very good terms. After a time, some of the 
fellows of my stamp, and I with the rest, got 
into a difficulty with one of the teachers, and, 
somehow or other, we got the notion that Tom 
Tucker was at the bottom of it. 
"This made me very mad. ' Tom Tucker — 
who is he ? ' I cried in anger. ' I'll let him 
know who I am ; ' and so we rattled on till 
we all got into a rage. Then the boys set me 
on to go down to Tom Tucker's and give him 
a thrashing. Swelling with anger, I bolted 
into Tom's yard. There he was playing with 
his little sister, and their dog Trip. Marching 
straight up to him, I bawled out, ' I'll teach 



78 THE GREAT PILOT. 

you how to talk about me, in this way, Mr. 
Tom Telltale.' 

" Tom never winced, or seemed the least 
frightened, but stood looking at me, as mild 
and gentle as a lamb. 

"'Tell me,' I cried, throwing down my 
books, doubling my fist, and sidling up to him, 
4 tell me, or I'll' — kill you, I was going to 
say, for murder was in my heart. Tom 
stepped aside, and said in a firm, yet mild 
tone, ' Charles, you may strike me as much as 
you please ; I tell you I shan't strike bach 
again. Fighting is a poor way to settle dif- 
ficulties. When you are yourself I'll talk 
with you.' 

" Oh ! what an answer that was ! How it 
cowed me down ! So firm, and yet so mild ! 
I felt there was no fun in having the fight all 
on one side. I was ashamed of myself, and 
my foolish, wicked temper. I longed to get 
out of his sight. I saw what a poor, foolish 
way my way of doing things was. I felt that 
Tom had got the better of me completely ; 
and from that hour Tom Tucker had an in- 



THE BEST ORNAilENT. 79 

fluence over me which nobody else had before 
or since. And all that was done by the power 
of a gentle spirit. And so I end as I began, 
my little man," said the gentleman ; " a gen- 
tle spirit is a mighty cure-all." 

Now Tom Tucker was wearing " the orna- 
ment of a meek and quiet spirit," and here 
we see what good it did to his noisy, quarrel- 
some school-mate. It changed his whole char- 
acter for life. This is the best ornament then, 
in the second place because it is so useful. 

The third reason ivhy u a meek and quiet 
spirit " is the best ornament is, that it makes 

THOSE WHO WEAR IT BEAUTIFUL. 

Other ornaments are for the body, but this 
is an ornament for the soul. And it makes 
the soul that wears it look really beautiful. 
You know how dreary a garden looks in win- 
ter. The leaves have all fallen. The flowers 
are all withered ; the bushes are all bare, and 
everything looks dark and desolate. But how 
different it is with that garden in the spring ! 
The leaves are out again, all fresh and green ; 
the flowers appear blooming in their loveli 



80 THE GREAT PILOT. 

ness, and everything looks bright and beauti- 
ful. The soul, without this ornament, is like 
a garden in winter. The soul, with this orna- 
ment, is like the garden in spring. It makes 
the soul look beautiful. 

Let us take another illustration. Yonder 
is a great mass of dark storm-clouds in the 
sky, without any sun to shine upon them. 
How gloomy they look ! How black and dis- 
agreeable ! You turn away your eye, with- 
out a moment's desire to see them again. But 
let the setting sun now shine out from behind 
them, and how different they look ! How they 
glow ! How they sparkle ! How beautiful 
those bright, golden, purple colors are which 
are shining all over them ! You love to 
stand and gaze upon them, and feel as if you 
would never get tired. Now, just what those 
dark clouds are without the sunshine, the soul 
is that does not wear " the ornament of a 
meek and quiet spirit." And just what those 
clouds are when the sun is shining upon them, 
and lighting them up with his glories, the 
soul is when it wears this best ornament. 



THE BEST ORNAMENT. 81 

Yes, no matter how old, or wrinkled, or ugly 
a person's face may be, if he is only wearing 
this ornament, it will shine through his face, 
as the sun does through the cloud, and make 
it look quite beautiful. 

One day, in winter, several years ago, a lit- 
tle boy from the south, who was on a visit to 
the city of Boston, was taking his first lesson 
in " sliding down hill." He was enjoying the 
fun very much, when, all at once, he found 
his foot had caught in the folds of a lady's 
rich silk dress. He was greatly confused and 
mortified ; and springing from his sled, with 
his cap in his hand, he began to make an ear- 
nest apology. 

" I beg your pardon, ma'am," he cried ; 
« I'm very sorry." 

" Never mind," said the lady, " there is no 
great harm done, and you feel worse about it 
than I do." 

" But, dear madam," said the boy, " your 
dress is ruined. I thought you would be very 
angry with me, for being so careless." 

6 



82 THE GREAT PILOT. 

" Oh, no," said the lady, " better have a 
torn dress than a ruffled temper." 

" Oh, isn't she a beauty ? " asked the little 
fellow, as the gentle-spirited lady went on her 
way. 

" Who ? That lady ? " asked his compan- 
ion. " If you call her a beauty, you shan't 
choose for me. Why she is more than forty 
years old, and her face is all yellow and wrin- 
kled." 

" I don't care if her face is wrinkled," said 
the little fellow ; " her soul is beautiful, any- 
how " 

And that was true. The lady was wearing 
" the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit," 
and this made her soul beautiful. This is the 
best ornament, because it makes those who wear 
it beautiful. 

The fourth reason why this is the best orna- 
ment is, that IT MAY BE WORN AT ALL TIMES. 

Other ornaments are only put on, and worn 
on particular occasions. Muffs and furs are 
worn only in winter. Light, thin dresses are 
only fit to be worn in summer. Bridal orna- 



THE BEST ORNAMENT. 83 

ments are only worn at weddings. Queen 
Victoria has a variety of most beautiful jew- 
els, as the ornaments of her crown ; but these 
are only worn on certain grand occasions. 
The general of an army only wears his full 
dress on parade days, or other important occa- 
sions. Ornaments of this kind are not fit to 
be worn every day. People do not wear 
them when they are travelling, or when they 
are sick, or when they are going to die. But 
it is different with this " ornament of a meek 
and quiet spirit.'' This can be worn by day 
or by night, in summer or in winter, at 
home or abroad, when sick or when well, 
when living or when dying. Yes, even 
when we come to die, in that solemn hour 
when all other ornaments are laid aside, "'the 
ornament of a meek and quiet spirit " may 
still be worn. We can wear it on our dying 
bed. We can wear it at the judgment-bar. 
And when we enter heaven we can wear it 
there, among the angels forever. This? is a 
good reason why it is the best ornament : it 
can be worn at all times. 



84 THE GREAT PILOT. 

There is only one other reason to mention 
why this is the best ornament, and that is, the 

LONGER IT IS WORN THE MORE BEAUTIFUL IT 
BECOMES. 

Other ornaments soon fade. You have 
seen a May-queen, adorned with roses and 
other lovely flowers. They look very beauti- 
ful at first, but how soon they begin to droop 
and wither ! So it is with the ornaments we 
put upon our clothes : in the spring we get 
them new and fresh, but before the summer 
is over they become soiled and faded, and 
lose their beauty. It is just the same with 
the ornaments which God puts upon our faces 
when we are young. The bright eyes and 
blooming cheeks which many young persons 
have are very beautiful ; but, ah ! how soon 
they fade away ! I remember, when I was a 
little fellow, about ten years old, I used to 
have bushy brown hair, and cheeks like roses. 
Sometimes persons would stop me in the 
street; and say " Why, my little man, what 
have you been doing to your cheeks ? " But 
I hadn't done anything. Those rosy cheeks 



THE BEST ORNAMENT. 85 

were the ornaments which God had put there. 
But the bushy brown hair, and the rosy 
cheeks have all gone, long since. 

Men sometimes carve monuments out of 
wood or stone, or iron or brass, and put them 
upon their houses or other buildings ; yet 
even these will crumble to pieces and wear 
away. 

But how different it is with " the ornament 
of a meek and quiet spirit," of which we are 
speaking ! This never fades, and never wears 
out. Yes, and not only so, but it keeps on 
growing more and more beautiful all the time. 
If we should live to be as old as Methuselah, 
it would not stop growing in beauty while we 
lived. No, nor will it stop growing in beauty 
at death, even. Moses was the meekest man 
upon earth when he lived. He wore this or- 
nament in this world for eighty years. It was 
growing in beauty all that time. He has been 
dead between three and four thousand years. 
This ornament has been growing more beauti- 
ful upon him ever since he died. Oh, how 
lovely he must appear now, in heaven, as he 



86 THE GREAT PILOT. 

wears this best ornament still ! Suppose you 
had a pearl, or a diamond, that was growing 
larger in size, and more brilliant in appear- 
ance, every year, how very valuable it would 
be ! There is no such pearl, or diamond in 
the world. But " the ornament of a meek 
and quiet spirit" is like a spiritual pearl or 
diamond ; and it has this wonderful property, 
that it is growing in beauty and value all the 
time. Then we may well say it is the lest 
ornament. 

It is so because Jesus wore it ; it is so because 
it is so useful; it is so because it makes those 
who wear it beautiful ; it is so because it may 
be worn at all times ; and it is so because the 
longer it is worn the more beautiful it becomes. 

Now, my dear young friends, I hope you will 
all try to get this ornament and wear it. You 
can't get it yourself; I can't give it to you, 
your parents or teachers can't give it to you; 
but Jesus can. He says, " Learn of me ; for I 
am meek and lowly." If you have bad tem- 
pers, pray to him to help you overcome them. 
He will give you " the ornament of a meek 



THE BEST ORNAMENT. 87 

and quiet spirit," which is, in the sight of Grod, 
of great price" This is a good reason why 
you should seek it. God loves it, God loves 
other ornaments, or else he wouldn't have 
made so many. See how he has ornamented 
the sky with that deep blue color, with those 
lovely clouds and rainbows and all the beau- 
ties of sunrise and sunset. See how he 
has ornamented the earth with trees and 
shrubs and flowers and grass. See how he 
has ornamented the birds with feathers of the 
most beautiful colors, and even the little but- 
terflies with a dress more splendid than the 
richest lady in the land ever put on. But 
God does not think much of any of these, or 
else he would not let them fade so soon. 
It is not said of any of those ornaments 
that they are " of great price in his sight." 
This is only said of this best ornament of 
which we are speaking. If it only said that 
this was " of great price in man's sight" that 
wouldn't be much. Men often make mistakes 
and think things of great value that are worth 
very little. I know a gentleman who was a 



88 THE GREAT PILOT. 

sailor when a young man. He once went on 
a voyage to the South Shetland Islands, far 
down toward the South Pole. The object 
of the voyage was to get seal-skins. The ves- 
sel remained there a good while. One day, 
in wandering about on shore, my friend dis- 
covered a cave. He entered the cave and 
found a great mass of what he took to be dia- 
monds. He hastened back to the ship, got a 
large bushel-bag, filled it with the supposed 
diamonds, and put them away safely in his 
great sea-chest. He said nothing about his 
discovery, but kept the secret to himself. 
All the voyage home, however, he comforted 
himself with the thought that when he re- 
turned he was to be the richest man in town. 
But when his treasure came to be examined, 
instead of being diamonds they proved to be 
only quartz crystals, and the whole bag-full 
was not worth five cents. 

Men often think things of great price that 
are really worth nothing. But God never 
makes such a mistake. When he says a thing 
is valuable, we may be sure it is so. But this 



THE BEST ORNAMENT. 89 

best ornament is of great price in his sight. 
Then let us all seek it, and wear it. It will 
make us useful in this world, and happy and 
glorious in the world to come. 



IV. 

Cjp ||rma of 1§mu. 

His name shall be called the Prince of Peace, — Isaiah 9 : 6. 



IV. 

IPs mmz s^rall bz mllzb tj)* ^tiutz of $zxtz. — Isaiah 9:6. 

This is one of the names of Jesus. The 
prophet Isaiah was speaking of him, about 
seven hundred years before he was born. He 
told a great many interesting things about 
him. Among these, he said that " His name 
shall be called Wonderful." And then he 
went on to mention what several of these 
names should be. One of his names was 
to be " Counsellor." Another was " The 
Mighty God." Another was " The Everlast- 
ing Father," and another, " The Prince of 
Peace" What a sweet name this is ! And 
how properly it is given to Jesus ! When the 
angels sung their song over the new-born Sa- 
viour,* as he was lying in the manger, they 
said, " Glory to God in the highest ! on earth, 
peace, good-will toward men." Jesus came 
into our world for the purpose of making 

C93) 



94 THE GREAT PILOT. 

peace. He came to make peace between God 
and men. The Bible tells us that God has a 
controversy or quarrel with men. We began 
the quarrel by sinning against God ; and we 
keep it up by our sins. 

Now, if two boys or girls quarrel with each 
other, you know how they act. They don't 
like to come near each other, and they wont 
speak if they do. And this is just the way in 
which we feel and act toward God. There is 
a quarrel between him and us. But Jesus 
came to make up this quarrel, and lead us to 
be at peace with God. This is one reason 
why he is called the " Prince of Peace." 

But Jesus came to make peace between na- 
tions, as well as between God and men. t The 
Bible tells us that " He maketh wars to cease, 
unto the ends of the earth." This is what he 
has done in our own land. Last year, at this 
time, there was war in our country, — a 
dreadful civil war ; that is, a war with our 
own countrymen. There were more than a 
million of soldiers in the field, trying to shoot 
and kill each other. But this is all over now. 



THE PRINCE OF PEACE. 95 

The Prince of Peace has brought that war to 
a close. And the Bible tells us that the day- 
is coming when Jesus will make all nations to 
love each other, and be at peace. They " shall 
beat their swords into ploughshares, and their 
spears into pruning-hooks ; and they shall 
learn war no more." Then no more guns 
will be made ; and no more powder or shot. 
No more strong forts will be put up, and no 
more iron-clads will be built ; but peace and 
good will prevail among all nations ; and 
Jesus may well be called " The Prince of 
Peace," because he will make peace among 
nations. 

But then Jesus will make peace between 
all people, as well as nations. He will teach 
men and women and children, in the same 
families and schools and neighborhoods, to 
love each other and to be at peace. And if 
he does this, surely this is reason enough why 
he should be called " The Prince of Peace." 

Now our sermon to-day will be about what 
Jesus does to makepeace. 

I wish to show you that there are three 



96 THE GREAT PILOT. 

things Jesus gives to his people, which help 
to make peace between them. Each of these 
things begin with a t ; so that if you remem- 
ber the three £'s, you will have the points of 
this sermon. 

The first thing that Jesus, as Prince of Peace, 
gives to his people, is a peaceful tongue. 

What a little thing the tongue is ! And 
yet how much mischief it can do ! You know 
how a single spark will sometimes kindle 
a fire that will go on blazing and roaring 
and spreading, till scores or hundreds of 
houses are burnt down. The Bible says, " Be- 
hold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth ! 
and the tongue is a fire." A few angry words, 
spoken in a thoughtless moment, oh, how much 
evil they have often done ! They have broken 
up families, and separated friends, and set 
neighbors to quarrelling, and even plunged 
nations into long and bloody wars. The Bible 
says " the tongue is a world of iniquity." It 
says, " Life and death are in the power of the 
tongue." Many persons have been killed by 
unkind words spoken to them. And the 
tongue is very hard to manage. 



THE PRINCE OF PEACE. 97 

A man named Pambo once came to a min- 
ister, and asked him to teach him a lesson 
from the Bible. The minister gave him this 
verse, from the Psalms, to read and commit to 
memory; — "I said I will take heed to my 
ways, that I sin not with my tongue." When 
he had fixed this in his mind, he shut up the 
book, and gave it back to the minister, saying 
he wouldn't go on any farther till he had 
learned to practise this. Then he went away. 
Some months after, the minister met him, and 
asked him why he didn't come for another les- 
son. He said, " he hadn't learned to govern 
his tongue yet." And forty years after that, 
he said the same thing to some one who spoke 
to him about it. The trouble with this man 
was that he tried, in his own strength, to 
govern his tongue. If he had gone to Jesus, 
" the Prince of Peace," and asked him to help 
him, he might soon have learned that first 
lesson the minister gave him. 

The Bible says that men can tame all sorts 
of wild animals and serpents, but that no man 
can tame the tongue. And it is true that no 

7 



98 THE GREAT PILOT. 

man can do this of himself. But if we get 
Jesus to help us we can do it. He is the 
Prince of Peace. And he can give his people 
peaceful tongues, and teach them to speak 
kind, pleasant words ; and these words always 
help to make peace. Solomon says, " A soft 
answer turneth away wrath." And Jesus 
teaches his people to give soft answers. 

There was a good minister in England 
some years ago. His name was John Brown. 
He lived in a town called Haddington. He 
was a true follower of the Prince of Peace. 
Jesus had given him a peaceful tongue. He 
knew well how to give a soft answer. When 
he was first settled, in the church at Hadding- 
ton, the people received him with great kind- 
ness, and were very much pleased with him. 
This was the case with all the congregation, 
except one man, whose name was Smith. He 
wasn't pleased with the new minister, and had 
made up his mind that he wouldn't like him. 

One day Dr. Brown met him in the street, 
and said to him, " Well, Mr. Smith, they tell 
me that you are opposed to my being settled 
in the church at Haddington ? " 



THE PRINCE OF PEACE. 99 

"That is true, sir," said Mr. Smith. 

" Well now, and if it be a fair question, 
may I ask on what ground you object to 
me?" 

" Because, sir, I don't think you are fit to 
have so large and important a church." 

" That is just what I think," said the Dr. ; 
"but what, sir, is the use of you and I setting 
up our opinion in opposition to all the people 
in the parish? " 

Mr. Smith smiled, and gave up his opposition 
to Dr. Brown, and became, from that day, one 
of his warmest friends. In this way " a soft 
answer turned away his wrath," — he was 
conquered by a peaceful tongue. 

Not long ago I read a story about two 
farmers who were angry with each other. 
They were not followers of the Prince of Peace. 
They had not, either of them, received from 
Jesus a peaceful tongue. One of them found 
the other's pig in the road; he caught hold of 
it, and, for mere spite, he cut two slits in the 
skin, on the side of the pig's neck, and pushed 
one of the pig's forefeet through these slits, so 



100 THE GREAT PILOT. 

that he couldn't get it out again. The poor 
pig had to go hobbling along, on three feet, and 
squealing terribly as he went. As soon as the 
owner of the pig saw this, he sought out the 
cow of his neighbor. He took out his knife, 
and cut the cow's mouth, on each side, so as to 
make it wider than it was naturally. When 
the owner of the cow saw what was done, he 
went to his neighbor in great anger, and 
stormed away at him, for his cruelty in cutting 
his cow's mouth. 

" Oh, I didn't do it," said he, telling a great 
story. " The fact is, that when your cow saw 
my pig, she laughed so much that it split her 
mouth open." 

Now, if those men went on in that way, 
how long do you suppose it would take them 
to make peace between themselves, and to 
learn to love each other ? They would never 
do it, while the world stands. They were 
fighting one another with hatred, and neither 
would get the victory. Love, gentleness, a 
peaceful tongue, is the thing to fight with, if 
we want to conquer people, and make peace. 



THE PRINCE OF PEACE. 101 

Let me show you how successful it was in a 
case very much like this. Mr. B. and Mr. R. 
lived near together. Mr. R. kept a great 
many hens. One day, some of them got into 
Mr. B's garden and scratched up his flower- 
beds. Instead of driving them out, and asking 
Mr. R. to please try and keep his chickens in, 
he got his gun and shot some of them. Then 
he went over to Mr. R.'s house in great anger, 
to scold him, and quarrel with him. 

" Mr. R.," said he, " I found some of your 
hens in my garden, and I shot them. If I 
catch any more, there I'll wring their heads off. 
So you know what to expect." 

But Mr. R. had a peaceful tongue. " I'm 
sorry, Mr. B.," said he, " that my hens have 
given you any trouble. I'll try my best to 
keep them in. But dinner is just ready. 
Wont you come in and sit down with us ? " 

u No, thank you, sir. But pray forgive me 
for speaking so roughly." Then they shook 
hands, and were good friends. Mr. B. never 
shot any more of Mr. R.'s hens. 

Let me tell you now about a gentleman 



102 THE GREAT PILOT. 

who used to live in Philadelphia. He belonged 
to the Society of Friends. He was a very 
kind man. Jesus had given him a peaceful 
tongue, and, as you will see, he made a good 
use of it. He had a pear-tree in his garden, 
which bore excellent fruit. Between his yard 
and his next door neighbors was a high fenc3, 
with sharp spikes along the top. One year, 
when the pears were ripe, a girl, belonging to 
the family next door, got very fond of our 
friend's pears. He saw her, several times, 
climb up the fence, and walk carefully along, 
between the spikes, till she came opposite the 
tree. Then she would fill a little basket with 
the fruit, and carry it away. 

One day, the gentleman filled a basket with 
the nicest pears he could find, went into his 
neighbor's house, and asked to see the girl, 
whose name was Rebecca. 

" Rebecca," said he, " here are some nice 
pears for thee." 

She was so much surprised that she couldn't 
speak. 

So the gentleman went on to say, " Re- 



THE PRINCE OF PEACE. 103 

becca, I have brought these pears on purpose 
for thee. I wish to make thee a present of 
them, as I perceive thou art very fond of 
them." 

Rebecca felt very much confused. She 
grew red in the face, and said, — 

" I don't want 'em, sir." 

" Ah, but thou dost, Rebecca, or thou 
would'st not take such pains to get them." 

Still she wouldn't take them, but kept say- 
ing, — "I don't want them. I don't want 
them." 

" Rebecca," said the kind friend, " thou must 
go and get a basket for these pears, or I shall 
leave them on the carpet, I am sure thou 
must like them, or thou would'st not climb 
such a high and dangerous fence to get them. 
Those spikes are very sharp, Rebecca ; and if 
thy feet should slip, as thou art walking on the 
fence — and I am much afraid they will — 
thou would'st get hurt a great deal more than 
the pears are worth. Thou art welcome to the 
fruit ; but I hope I shall not see thee expose 
thyself so foolishly again." 



104 THE GREAT PILOT. 

Now, do you think that Rebecca would ever 
steal any more of that gentleman's pears ? No. 
You may be sure of that. He had conquered 
her by his peaceful tongue. 

What, then, is the first tiling that Jesus, as 
the Prince of Peace, gives to his people ? 

A peaceful tongue. That is the first thing. 

The second thing that Jesus, as the Prince of 
Peace, gives to his people, is A peaceful temper. 
This is the second t. 

Jesus says to all his people, " Learn of me, 
for I am meek." Before he went out of the 
world, he said to his disciples, " Peace I leave 
with you. My peace I give unto you." Jesus 
had a gentle, loving, peaceful temper ; and un- 
less we have a temper like him we can't be his 
followers. And there is nothing that has such 
power to make peace among men as a temper 
like that which Jesus had. 

There was a little boy, in a public school, 
who had often been laughed at on account of 
his shabby clothes, by another boy, older and 
richer than himself. This grieved the little 
fellow very much. He was afraid to venture 



THE PRINCE OF PEACE. 105 

on the play-ground at recess, because this boy 
made so much fun of him ; so he would go 
away by himself, and spend his play-time in 
reading, or studying his lessons. 

One day, while he was thus engaged, he 
heard the large boy, who had treated him so 
badly, say to some of the boys about him, — 
"There, now, only to think; I've learned the 
wrong history lesson, and so I shall be sure to 
lose my place, for I've left my book at home, 
and there wont be time to go and get it, and 
then learn the lesson before the class is called 
up. Dear me, dear me, what shall I do ? " 

Most of the boys only laughed at him. 
They envied him, for being at the head of the 
class so long, and were glad to think there was 
a chance for some of them to get above him. 

But it was different with little Edward, the 
boy whom he had treated so badly. He was a 
young follower of the Prince of Peace. He 
had a peaceful temper. He said, u Henry, 
here is my book ; you are welcome to use it as 
long as you wish ; and I will help you about 
your lesson, if I can." 



106 THE GREAT PILOT. 

What a noble little fellow he was ! Well, 
you may be sure, Henry never said another 
unkind word to him, or teased him any more 
about his poor clothes. Edward's peaceful 
temper had conquered him, and made him his 
warm friend for life. 

Let me give you another story, to show how 
much good may be done by those who try to 
have peaceful tempers. 

One afternoon a big boy stood at the door of 
a Sunday school. He was so bad that he had 
been turned out the Sunday before. His 
mother brought him back, and begged that he 
might be taken in again. The superintendent 
said, " We should be glad to do him good, 
but we are afraid he'll injure all the other 
scholars. It is very bad for a school when a 
big boy sets a bad example." 

" We know he's a bad boy at school," said 
his mother ; " but then he's ten times worse at 
home ; and he'll be lost if you don't take him 
back." 

" We would gladly take him back, if we 
could be sure he would do better. I'll see. " 



THE PRINCE OF PEACE. 107 

The superintendent stepped back into the 
school, and rang his bell for silence. The les- 
sons were stopped, and all listened to hear 
what he had to say. g 

"Boys,"' said he, " Bob Jones, the big boy 
whom we turned out last Sunday, for bad be- 
havior, wants to come back ; but we can't take 
him in unless we can be sure he will do better. 
Will any one be surety for him ? " 

Then there was a pause. The older boys 
shook their heads. They said they knew him 
too well. The others didn't care for him. At 
last, one little fellow pitied the big bad boy. 
He felt sorry that no one would be surety for 
Bob, to take him into school again. The little 
boy was known as " Ragged Tom." But it 
wasn't his fault that he was ragged, for his 
mother was very poor. Presently he rose up 
in his place, and the superintendent heard his 
little voice saying, — 

" If you please, sir, I will, sir." 

" You, Tom ! a little boy like you ! Do 
you know what it means to be surety, Tom ? " 

" Yes, sir, if you please ; it means when he 



108 THE GREAT PILOT. 

is a bad boy again, I'm to be punished for 
him." 

" And are you willing to be punished for 
that big boy ? " 

" Yes, sir, if he's bad again." 

" Then, come in," said the superintendent, 
looking toward the door. Bob came in, with 
a downcast look, and walked across the floor 
to a seat in his class. But while doing this, 
he was thinking thus to himself: "I know 
I'm a bad boy, but I'm not so mean as that, 
anyhow. I'll never let that little fellow be 
punished for me, no, never ! " God had put 
this thought into Bob's mind. He was help- 
ing u Ragged Tom " in his work as surety. 
We shall see directly what came of it. 

As the children were leaving school, the 
superintendent saw big Bob and little Tom 
walking and talking together. He said to 
himself, " I'm afraid that boy will do Tom 
some harm. I must go and look after them." 
So he followed them, at some distance down 
the lane. 

When he reached the cottage where Tom 



THE PRINCE OF PEACE. 109 

lived, he said to his mother, " where is your 
son Tom ? " 

" Oh ! he's just gone upstairs, with a big 
boy that came in with him. I don't know 
what they are doing." 

" May I go up ? " he asked. 

" Oh, yes, sir." 

The superintendent went softly up the stairs, 
and, as he reached the top, he could see, through 
the door left ajar, that Tom and the big boy 
were kneeling down together. He listened a 
moment, and heard Tom's voice saying, " 
Lord, make Bob, who has been the worst boy 
in the school, Lord, make him the best boy." 

Then he went in and knelt down by Tom's 
side, and they all prayed together. 

God heard their prayers and made Bob — 
the big bad boy — become one of the best 
boys in the school. And he raised up friends 
for " Ragged Tom," who put him to school, 
and then sent him to college. He became a 
minister, and went out as a missionary to the 
heathen. 

Tom proved that he was a follower of the 



110 THE GREAT PILOT. 

Prince of Peace by having a peaceful temper. 
By exercising that temper he tried to do good, 
and make peace among those about him. 

The second thing that Jesus, as the Prince 
of Peace, gives to his people is a peaceful 
temper. This is the second t. 

The third thing that Jesus, as the Prince of 
Peace, gives to his people is, a peaceful taste. 

This is the third t. A peaceful taste. Now 
perhaps some of you are ready to say, " Well, 
this is funny enough, to talk about people hav- 
ing a taste." But it isn't funny either. It's 
just so. Only when we speak of the taste 
which a man or woman, a boy or girl has, 
we mean something very different from what 
we mean when we speak of the taste that 
things have, like sugar, or salt. When you 
put a piece of sugar on your tongue, how 
does it feel ? Sweet. Then what do you say 
the taste of sugar is ? Sweet. The taste 
of vinegar is what? Sour. Yes, because it 
produces that feeling when you put it on your 
tongue. 

But when we speak of the tastes that peo- 



THE PRINCE OF PEACE. Ill 

pie have, we mean by it what they love to 
do. If you see a boy, who is all the time get- 
ting into fights and quarrels, and you say he 
has a taste for quarrelling, what do you mean ? 
That he loves to quarrel. If you see a girl 
who is always slipping away by herself, to read 
some interesting book, and who had rather 
do that than play ; then you say, she has a taste 
for reading. And you mean by that, that she 
loves reading, don't you ? And so when we 
say that a person has a taste for any particu- 
lar thing, we mean that that is the thing 
which such a person loves. And when we 
say that Jesus gives his people a peaceful taste, 
or a taste for peace, we mean that he gives 
them a love for it. He teaches them to try 
to make all about them peaceful, and happy. 
And he who does this may well be called 
" The Prince of Peace." 

The greatest blessing we can receive is to 
be made followers of the Prince of Peace. 
Then, we shall have a taste for peace, or a 
love for peace. And when we have this, we 
shall be trying all the time to make those 



112 THE GREAT PILOT. 

about us happy and peaceful. Look at the 
apostle Paul. Before he became a Christian, 
he went about persecuting people, shutting 
them up in prison, and putting them to death. 
Then he had a taste, or love, for those things. 
But when he learned to know Jesus, his taste 
was changed. He loved to preach the gospel of 
peace, — to show people the way to heaven, — 
to do them good and try to make them happy. 

And all the true followers of the Prince of 
Peace will have the same taste that Paul had, 
and will try to do good in the same way. 

Now, let me show you how differently those 
people will act who have this peaceful taste, 
— this love for doing good, — from those who 
don't have it. 

A teacher and his scholar, a rich young 
man, were one day walking out together in 
the country. The teacher was a follower of 
the Prince of Peace, the young man was not. 
As they walked along, they saw a pair of old 
shoes, lying in the path, belonging to a poor 
man, who was at work in a field close by, and 
who had nearly finished his day's work. 



THE PRINCE OF PEACE. 113 

The young man turned to his teacher, and 
said, " Now let's have some sport ! Suppose 
we hide this old man's shoes, and then conceal 
ourselves in the bushes, and see what he will 
do when he can't find his shoes." 

" Oh, no," said the teacher ; " we should 
never amuse ourselves by giving pain to oth- 
ers, and especially to the poor. I'll tell you 
how you can give yourself much greater 
pleasure, by means of this old man. Put a 
silver dollar in each of his shoes, for you can 
well afford it ; and then we'll hide ourselves, 
and see what he says when he finds them." 

The young man did so, and then the teacher 
and he hid themselves behind some bushes 
close by, where they could easily watch the 
old man, and see his surprise and joy when he 
found the money. 

Well, pretty soon he had finished his work, 
and came across the field to the path where 
he had left his coat and shoes. While he was 
putting on his coat, he slipped his foot into 
one of his shoes, when, feeling something hard 
in it, he stooped down and found the dollar. 



114 THE GREAT PILOT. 

What wonder and astonishment were seen in 
his face ! He gazed upon the dollar ; he 
turned it round and round, and looked at it, 
again and again. Then he looked all about 
him, as if to find out where it came from; 
but he could see no one. Then he slipped 
the money into his pocket, and began to put 
on his other shoe. But how great was his 
astonishment when he found the other dollar ! 
This was more than he could stand. His 
feelings quite overcame him. He looked up 
to heaven, and poured out aloud his thanks- 
giving to God, And the tears rolled down 
his cheeks as he spoke of his wife, sick and 
helpless, and his children without bread, but 
who would be saved from suffering by this 
unexpected treasure. 

The young man himself could not help 
shedding tears, as he saw and heard all this ; 
and, as they went on with their walk, he 
thanked his teacher for the good lesson he 
had taught him. 

Now, let me show how even children can 
be followers of the Prince of Peace, by doing 
good as he did. 



THE PRINCE OF PEACE. 115 

A pious mother was putting her children to 
bed one night. While doing this, she asked 
them, as she was accustomed to do, what they 
had done to make anybody happy that day. 
The older children told her of different things 
they had done. But the two youngest, who 
were twin sisters, didn't say anything. She 
repeated her question to them. One of them 
said, " I can't remember anything good I did 
to-day, mother, only one of my schoolmates 
was happy because she had gained the head 
of the class, and I smiled on her, and kissed 
her, and told her I was glad for her. She 
thanked me, and said it was very kind." 

" And what has dear Minnie got to say?" 
asked her mother, turning to her other little 
one. " A little girl, who sat by me on the 
bench at school," said Minnie, w had lost her 
brother. I saw that, while she was studying 
her lesson, she hid her face in her book and 
cried. I felt sorry for her, and I laid my face 
on the same book, and cried with her. Then 
she looked up, and wiped the tears away, 
and put her arms round my neck. And, 



116 THE GREAT PILOT. 

I don't know why, but she said I had done 
her good." 

Dear little Minnie ! how sweetly she was 
learning to be like Jesus. She was getting 
the third thing, — a peaceful taste, — a love for 
doing good. 

I am so anxious for you all to try to be fol- 
lowers of the Prince of Peace that I must give 
you one more story to show how children can 
be doing good even where they don't give any 
money. 

It was a cold winter's day. The snow was 
falling fast and the wind was blowing fiercely. 
Little Bettie Moore was standing at the win- 
dow, wrapped up in a big shawl, looking out 
at the people, as they passed by in the street. 
In the room behind her was a large fire, and 
her little brother was rolling on the rug before 
it, amusing himself with his Christmas things. 
Presently Bettie said, — 

" George, would you believe it ? here is 
a man coming along, all alone, with a little 
coffin under his arm. There now, he has set 
it down on the stone step at our gate. And, 



I ■ • ' ; i -..'■%$' 




THE PRINCE OF PEACE. 117 

poor man, he looks so sad ! I'll run down to 
the door and ask him if I can do anything for 
him;" and, forgetting the cold, little Bettie 
ran downstairs and hurried out to the gate. 

The man looked at her for a moment, and 
then leaned his head on the lid of the coffin, 
and burst into a flood of tears. 

Bettie laid her little hand gently on his 
shoulder, and stood there weeping too, but 
not knowing what to say. 

By and by, the man looked up to her again 
and said, " God bless you, little miss ; you 
must be an angel God has sent to comfort a 
poor broken-hearted father. May the spirit of 
her that is in this coffin keep you from harm." 

" Is it your little girl ? " asked Bettie. 

" Yes." 

" Well, you can meet her again when you 
die, if you love Jesus. Mamma says we'll 
meet our little buried sister in heaven, if we 
pray to God, and mind what Jesus says. Oh, 
I'm so sorry for you," she said, almost choked 
with her sobs ; " but you'll try to meet your 
little girl in heaven, wont you ? " 



118 THE GREAT PILOT. 

" I will, by God's help," said the man. 
" Wont you pray for me, my little lady ? " 

" Yes, sir," said Bettie, " I'll pray for you 
every night before I go to bed. And if you'll 
come to our church, round the corner, on 
Sunday, our minister will tell you about Je- 
sus, and pray for you. He always prays for 
those in sorrow." 

u God bless you, little darling. I haven't 
gone much to church, but I'll come for your 
sake. Now go into the house ; it's too cold for 
you out here. Good-by." 

Then he went away with his little coffin ; 
and he felt as much comforted as if an angel 
from heaven had really been sent to speak 
kind words to him. He came to church next 
Sunday. He heard the minister talk about 
Jesus, and pray for those in sorrow. After 
that he went regularly to church. He became 
a Christian, and died a happy death, and went 
to meet his little girl in heaven. 

And now, my dear children, I wont keep 
you any longer. Remember the text, " His 
name shall be called . . . the Prince of 



THE PRINCE OF PEACE. 119 

Peace." As the Prince of Peace, Jesus gives 
his people three peaceful things. What is the 
first? Peaceful tongues. What is the sec- 
ond ? Peaceful tempers. What is the third ? 
Peaceful tastes. These are three precious and 
profitable tf&. How I wish I could give 
them to every scholar here. I can't give 
them, but Jesus can. Oh, ask him for them ! 
Try to get them. If you do so, I'm sure that 
the coming New Year will be a very happy 
one to you. What happy times you will have 
at home, and at school, and wherever you go, 
if you only carry these three tfs with you ! 
Peaceful tongues, peaceful tempers, and 
peaceful tastes — get these, and then you will 
be true followers of the Prince of Peace. 



V. 



There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. 
Proverbs 18: 24. 



® jm"e is a fmub tjjat sticktt^ da&tx ijjan a (jro%r. — Proverbs 
18 : 24. 

Suppose that you have been born in Eng- 
land. When you are twelve years old, your 
father and mother both die. The only other 
relation you have in the world is an uncle, 
who lives in this country, in Pittsburg. You 
conclude to come across the great ocean, and 
find out your uncle in America. You take 
passage on board of a vessel bound to Phila- 
delphia. The ship gets safely over the sea. 
She comes up the river Delaware. You land 
on the wharf, at the foot of Walnut Street. 
But there is not a single person in this great 
city that you know ; not one that knows you. 
You begin to walk about the city. You go 
up one street and down another. Here you 
see a little girl walking, hand in hand, with 
her mother. There you see a little boy riding 
out with his father. And there, again, you 

(123) 



124 THE GREAT PILOT. 

see a lot of boys and girls playing merrily 
together. How happy they seem! They all 
have bright, pleasant homes to which they can 
go. They all have friends who love them and 
are kind to them. But you have no home to 
go to. Among all the crowds around you, in 
the great city, there is not a single person you 
ever saw before, — not one kind friend that 
knows you, or loves you, or cares for you. 
How lonely and sad this would make you feel ! 
You would want to get away into some cor- 
ner, or sit down on some step, and have a good 
long cry. 

But how different your situation is from that 
of this poor, lonely stranger ! You all have 
nice homes to go to. You all have many 
good, kind friends. They are always glad to 
see you. They meet you with kind words and 
pleasant looks and a warm shake of the hand. 
You feel happy among them. It is a good 
thing to have earthly friends, like those we are 
now speaking of; but, " There is a friend that 
sticketh closer than a brother." This refers 
to Jesus. He is the friend of sinners. It is 



THE BEST FRIEND. 125 

he who is referred to in the hymn which 
says : — 

" One there is above all others, 

Well deserves the name of friend : 
His is love beyond a brother's, 
Costly, free, and knows no end." 

Our sermon to-day will be about The Best 
Friend. Jesus is the best friend. 

I wish to give you four reasons why Jesus is 
the best friend. 

The first reason ivhy Jesus is the best friend, 
is because he is the oldest friend. 

Suppose you should take a sheet of paper, 
and write down upon it a list of the names of 
all your friends. You have a list of twenty, 
or thirty, or fifty, or a hundred names, or 
more. Then suppose you begin at the top of 
the list, and write down, opposite to each name, 
how long that person has been your friend. 
Here is the name of a person you first became 
acquainted with at the sea-shore last summer. 
He has been your friend about five months. 
Here is another you have known since last 
Christmas. He has been your friend almost a 
year. Here is another, who has been your 



126 THE GREAT PILOT. 

friend for three years ; another for five 
years ; another for seven, and so on. In this 
way you could soon find out how old all your 
friends were. You could tell just when they 
became your friends. Before that time, you 
didn't know them, or love them, or care for 
them, nor they for you. At the bottom of the 
list you would write down the names of your 
father and your mother. They are your best 
earthly friends. They have known you, and 
loved you, longer and better than any of your 
other friends. Their friendship began as soon 
as you were born. It is as old as you are. 
But before you were born, even they didn't 
know you, or love you, or care for you. They 
have only been your friends for a very few 
years. 

But how long has Jesus been your friend ? 
Who can answer this question ? Jesus was 
your friend before you were born. Jesus was 
your friend before your parents were born. 
Before the days of George Washington, and 
the times of the Revolutionary war, Jesus was 
your friend. Before the time when Christo- 



THE BEST FRIEND. 127 

pher Columbus discovered America, Jesus was 
your friend. Before William the Conqueror 
invaded England, about nine hundred years 
ago, Jesus was your friend. Before the time 
when Jesus himself was born into our world, 
— eighteen hundred years ago, — he was your 
friend. Before the time when Noah built his 
ark, and the world was drowned by the waters 
of the flood, — that is more than four thou- 
sand years ago, — Jesus was your friend. Be- 
fore the world was made, — that is nearly six 
thousand years ago, — Jesus was your friend. 
His friendship for you never had a beginning. 
He says to each of his people, in the Bible, " I 
have loved thee with an everlasting love." 
This means a love which has had no begin- 
ning. When you look up at the stars, at 
night, as they are shining in the quiet sky, 
you can point to them, and say, " Jesus 
knew me, and thought of me, and loved me, 
and was my friend before those stars began to 
twinkle." 

And this is the first reason why Jesus is the 
best friend, because he is the oldest friend. 



128 THE GREAT PILOT. 

The second reason is because he is the kind- 
est FRIEND. 

When we feel great kindness in our hearts, 
toward those about us, there are two ways in 
which we may show that kindness ; one is by 
our words, the other is by our actions ; or by 
what we say and by what we do. You know 
how easily we can tell what kind of feeling a 
person has in his heart, toward those about 
him, by just listening to the words he speaks. 
Here are two fathers going to their homes. 
One is a miserable drunkard. He spends all 
his money at the tavern, and leaves his poor 
wife to get bread for herself and the children, 
in any way she can. As soon as he enters 
the door, he begins to curse and swear. He 
scolds the children, and storms at them, till 
they shrink away into the corners of the room, 
like frightened deer. Now they are only 
words which this poor drunken father has been 
using, but ah ! how much unkindness has been 
shown by those words ! 

But here is another father going to his home. 
He is affectionate and loving. There is a 



THE BEST FRIEND. 129 

sweet smile on his face. The words he speaks 
are gentle, pleasant, kind words. His return 
to that home is like the rising of the sun after 
the darkness of the night, or like the coming 
of spring after the dreariness of winter. How 
glad the children are that father has come ! 
How they love to hear his voice ! for the words 
he speaks show the kindness of his heart to- 
ward them. And, just in the same way, Jesus 
shows his kindness toward us by the words 
which he speaks to us. The Bible is full of 
sweet, comforting words which show the kind- 
ness that is in the heart of Jesus toward us. 
In one place he says, " Come unto me, all ye 
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give 
you rest." In another place he says, " Him 
that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast 
out." He calls us " his sons," and " his 
daughters," his " friends," and his " treasure." 
He says, " Pear not, I am with thee : I will 
strengthen thee ; yea, I will help thee ; I will 
never leave thee, nor forsake thee." " When 
thou passest through the waters I will be with 
thee, and through the fire, it shall not kindle 

9 



130 THE GREAT PILOT. 

upon thee." " As one whom his mother corn- 
forteth, so will I comfort thee." These are 
some of the precious words which Jesus has 
spoken, and they show us what wonderful 
kindness is in his heart toward us. 

But actions show kindness as well as words. 

In the southern part of Africa, near the 
Cape of Good Hope, the people are afflicted 
with a fearful disease, like the leprosy of 
which we read in the Bible. Those who take 
this disease can never get well. No physi- 
cians can do them any good. No medicine can 
cure it. The disease shows itself in dreadful 
sores. After a person has had it for some 
time, his toes, and the ends of his fingers, will 
rot and drop off. And so it will go on, spread- 
ing over his body, till at last he dies a miser- 
able death. This disease is what they call in- 
fectious , that is, persons can catch it from one 
another. If one person take it, in a family, 
or neighborhood, other persons are liable to 
take it from him. It is not safe, therefore, 
for a person who has this disease to go about 
among other people. For this reason the peo- 



THE BEST FRIEND. 131 

pie, in the neighborhood of which I am speak- 
ing, built a large house, as a hospital, for the 
use of those persons who had this disease. 
The house had a large yard about it, and this 
was surrounded by a great high wall, like a 
prison. The people who had this disease were 
required to go and live in this hospital. But, 
those who went in were never allowed to come 
out again. They were obliged to stay in 
there till they died. They* were supplied with 
food, and all they needed, from without ; but 
they were never permitted to come out and see 
their friends, and no one was permitted to go 
in, unless he was willing to stay there as long 
as he lived. 

There was a great number of those poor 
creatures in that dreadful place. They could 
never come out to go to church, and they had 
nobody to preach to them, and tell them the 
way to heaven. 

But there was a good Moravian missionary, 
with his wife, living in that neighborhood. 
They thought a great deal about the poor 
creatures in that hospital, and pitied them so 



132 THE GREAT PILOT. 

much that, at last, they made up their minds 
to go in and live among them, for the sake of 
telling them about Jesus, and teaching them 
the way to heaven. Now, when those good 
missionaries bade good-by to their friends 
and went into that hospital, as if they were 
going into a living grave, never to come out 
of it till they died, you see at once, how they 
showed their kindness to those poor lepers, by 
their actions. How wonderful that kindness 
was ! 

And yet the kindness of Jesus to us is great- 
er far than this. This world of ours was like 
a great leprosy hospital. All the people in it 
had the dreadful leprosy of sin. And when 
Jesus saw that there was no other way in 
which we could be saved from this dreadful 
disease, he was willing to leave yonder glo- 
rious heaven, to live with us in this dark 
world ; yes, and even to die for us here, that 
awful death upon the cross. Oh, what wonder- 
ful kindness and love Jesus has shown to us ! 
By his words and by his actions ; by what he 
has said and by what he has done, Jesus has 



THE BEST FRIEND. 133 

shown his kindness. He is the best friend 
because he is the kindest friend. 

The third reason why Jesus is the best friend 
is, because he is the ablest friend. 

When Jesus was in this world he said, 
" All power, in heaven, and on earth, is given 
unto me." He can do anything that he 
pleases, to help his friends. The angels of 
heaven are his servants, and stand waiting, all 
the time, to do whatever he tells them. The 
sun and the moon and the stars are his ser- 
vants. When he made them, he hung them 
up in the sky, and told them to shine for him ; 
and they have kept on shining, from that day 
to this. The winds of heaven, the waves of 
the sea, the beasts of the field, the birds of 
the air, and the creeping things of the earth 
are all his servants. All the people in the 
world, the kings, the great men, the rich men, 
the poor men, and all things that exist, down 
to a grain of sand, or the smallest insect, he 
employs in his service, and makes them do 
just what he wants to have done. The Bible 
tells us that Jesus can " make all things work 



134 THE GREAT PILOT. 

together for good to those who love him." 
How wonderful this is ! I can't make all 
things work together for good for myself, or 
for those I love best. The greatest king in 
the world can't do it. The mightiest angel in 
heaven can't do it. But Jesus can do it, just 
as easily as you or I can bend our little fin- 
ger. Jesus was the friend of the children of 
Israel, and when it was necessary for them to 
cross the Red Sea, and they had no way of get- 
ting over, he caused the waters to divide, 
and made a way for them to walk on dry 
ground right through the depths of the sea. 
On another occasion, it was necessary, for the 
good of the Israelites, that they should gain a 
great victory over their enemies, and that they 
might have time to do this, he made the sun 
and the moon stand still for a whole day. 

When it was necessary, for the good of his 
servant Elisha, he sent a whole army of angels 
to protect him from danger ; as we read in 
the sixth chapter of the second book of Kings. 
What a privilege it is to have for our friend 
One who is able to make the sun shine and 



THE BEST FRTEXD. 135 

the winds blow and the waves roll and the 
very angels of heaven come down, when he 
tells them, on purpose to do good to us ! Yet 
this is just what Jesus can do. 

And at the same time that he employs the 
mighty angels to do good to his people, he 
can make use of the very least things, about 
them, for the sake of doing them good. 

Some years ago, there was a captain going 
to sea, from the port of Philadelphia. The 
day before he sailed, he went to visit a friend, 
over in West Philadelphia. The lady, in the 
house where he was visiting, gave him a lit- 
tle lap-dog, which she had grown tired of. 
The captain, who was a good Christian man, 
said he would take the little dog to sea with 
him. He little thought, then, how much good 
was to come to him through that tiny crea- 
ture. The next day the lady was sorry she 
had parted with her pet dog, and sent to get 
him back ; but it was too late. The captain 
had gone to sea. The vessel sailed to the 
West Indies. There she was wrecked, and 
driven on a dangerous shoal, not far from 



136 THE GREAT PILOT. 

one of the islands. The waves were breaking 
over her in great fury, and rolling up in foam 
and thunder on the shore. The people gath- 
ered on the shore to watch the wreck. But 
they had no life-boat, and could render no 
help. The boats belonging to the ship had 
been so injured by the storm that they were 
of no use. What was to be done ? The ship 
would soon go to pieces, and all on board 
would perish unless they could be gotten 
off the wreck. The captain took the lit- 
tle dog which had been given to him, and, 
getting a ball of twine, he tied one end of the 
twine to the collar that was on the dog's 
neck, and then threw him overboard, into 
the sea. It seemed as though he would cer- 
tainly be swallowed up in the angry sea ; but 
presently they saw the little fellow, heading 
for the shore, and paddling away with all his 
might. The great waves would roll over him, 
the sailors would lose sight of him for a while, 
but, by and by, they would see him again, 
shaking his head above the water, and mak- 
ing straight for the shore. At last a big 



THE BEST FRIEND. 137 

wave rolled the little four-legged sailor safe 
up on the land, with the twine attached to 
his collar. 

In the mean time the Captain had fast- 
ened a strong cord to the other end of the 
twine, on board the ship. When he saw the 
dog was safe on shore, he motioned to the peo- 
ple there to haul in the twine. They did so ; 
and presently they got hold of the cord. To 
the end of the cord he fastened a stout rope, 
and to the end of the rope, what the sailors 
call a hawser, which is a rope about as thick 
as my wrist. When they got the hawser on 
shore, they made it fast to a tree, high up on 
the beach. Then the sailors, on board the 
vessel, hauled away on the other end of it, till 
it was pretty tight, or, as they call it on ship- 
board, " taut" When this was done they 
had a rope bridge, from the wreck to the shore. 
In this way they all got safe to land. Thus, 
you see, how Jesus made use of so small a 
thing as that little dog to save the lives of 
all on board that ship. 

Let me give you another story to show how 



138 THE GREAT PILOT. 

Jesus is able to help his people, when they 
are in trouble, by something smaller even 
than a little lap-dog. 

Some years ago, a poor widow woman was 
sitting by the window of her little cottage, one 
warm summer evening. Her little son, her 
only child, was standing near her, leaning 
against the window-frame. This poor widow 
loved the cottage in which she lived very 
much. It had been purchased by her hus- 
band, who had only been dead a few months. 
He himself had planted the choice fruit-trees, 
which were then so flourishing, and promised 
to bear an abundant crop of fruit. 

But she felt very sad that evening ; for she 
expected that that was the last evening she 
and her little son would ever spend in that 
cottage. Though their home had been bought 
and nearly all paid for, it was about to be 
taken from them. Her husband had bor- 
rowed five hundred dollars from a rich neigh- 
bor, with which to purchase the cottage. The 
agreement made between them was, that he 
was to pay fifty dollars a year of this money 



THE BEST FRIEND. 139 

till it was all returned. He had done this 
every, year and taken a receipt for the money, 
till the time of his death. Then there only 
remained fifty dollars to be paid off. Shortly 
after the owner of the cottage died, the rich 
neighbor, from whom he had borrowed the 
money, died also. The son of this man found 
among his father's papers a note stating that 
this poor man had borrowed five hundred dol- 
lars from him ; but it said nothing about any 
of it having been paid back. So he called on 
the poor widow in the cottage to pay the five 
hundred dollars, which her husband had bor- 
rowed from his father. She told him that 
her husband had paid it all back but fifty dol- 
lars. He asked her to show him the receipts, 
to prove that the money had been paid. But 
she had lost her husband's receipt-book. She 
searched the cottage from top to bottom, but 
it could not be found. Then the man said he 
didn't believe that the money had been paid 
at all ; that he would sell the cottage, and she 
must find another home. The next day the 
cottage was to be sold, and of course the poor 



140 THE GREAT PILOT. 

widow and her little boy felt sad enough to 
think that to-morrow they must leave their own 
dear home, without having any other to go to. 

This poor woman was a Christian, but this 
trouble had come upon her so suddenly that 
she had hardly thought of looking to Jesus to 
help her. Freddy, her little boy, said to her, — 

"Mother, don't you think that if we pray 
to Jesus, in our trouble, he will help us ? " 

" Yes, my child," she said. So they kneeled 
down together, and Freddy offered a sweet 
little prayer. He asked Jesus to help them 
in their trouble, and keep them from being 
turned out of their nice home, or else to 
please get them another. 

When Freddy had risen from his knees, the 
first thing he saw was a large firefly, which 
had just come in at the window. He tried to 
catch it, but it dodged him, darting aside first 
here and then there. Freddy chased it round 
and round the room, without being able to get 
it. At last, it flew down to the floor, and crept 
under a chest of drawers that stood against 
the wall. Freddy got down on his knees, and 



THE BEST FRIEND. 141 

tried to get hold of it ; but he couldn't reach 
far enough. He asked his mother to please 
pull the drawers away from the wall a little 
distance. She did so ; and, in doing it, she 
heard something fall on the floor. She stooped 
to pick it up ; and what do you think it was ? 
It was her husband's lost receipt-book. Then 
she had the proof that the money had been 
paid. She went at once to the man who had 
ordered the cottage to be sold, and showed 
him the receipts. When he heard how the 
book had been found, he was so surprised at 
the wonderful way in which God had taken 
care of this poor widow, that he gave her a re- 
ceipt in full for the remaining fifty dollars due 
on the cottage, and then it was all her own. 
How soon Jesus heard and answered Freddy's 
prayer ! He answered it by means of that 
little firefly. That was just as good as if he 
had sent an angel from heaven to tell them 
where the lost book could be found. This 
shows us how easily Jesus can make use of 
the very greatest things, or the very smallest 
things, in order to help his people and do them 



142 THE GREAT PILOT. 

good. He is the best friend for the third 
reason, because he is the ablest friend. 

The fourth and last reason why he is the best 
friend is that he is always near. 

You may have the dearest, and most valu- 
able friend in the world, but if he is far off 
from you when you most need his help, what 
good will it do you? How many persons have 
lost their lives just because the friend, on 
whom they trusted, was far away from them 
in the hour of danger or difficulty ! 

Most of you know the story of young Casa- 
bianca. You have often heard the piece about 
him, spoken in school, which begins, — 

" The boy stood on the burning deck, 
Whence all but he had fled," etc. 

He was the son of a French admiral. His 
father commanded the French fleet in the 
battle of the Nile and had charge of the largest 
ship of war in the fleet. When the battle be- 
gan, his father gave him a position on the 
quarter-deck, and told him not to leave it 
without his orders. The battle went on, and 



THE BEST FRIEND. 143 

raged terribly. Whole broadsides were fired 
at once. Masts were falling, timbers crash- 
ing, and cannon-balls flying in every direc- 
tion. The shouts of the men and the cries 
and groans of the wounded were mingling to- 
gether. In the midst of the battle the French 
admiral was killed, without his son knowing 
of it. Soon after his ship caught fire. The 
flames burst forth from the hatchways with 
great fury. They caught the rigging. They 
ran along the yards and mounted up the 
masts. Every part of that huge ship was 
wrapped in sheets of flame. This occurred at 
midnight. What a contrast that blazing ship 
made with the gloom of the surrounding dark- 
ness ! The battle ceased for a while. All 
stood still to watch that burning ship. The 
flames swept on. The men fled from the 
blazing wreck. But Casabianca stood still 
upon that burning deck. His father had told 
him to stay. He wouldn't go without his leave. 
He didn't know that he was dead. He cried, 
" Father, is my duty done ? May I go ? " 
But there was no answer. Ah ! if that father 



144 THE GREAT PILOT. 

could only have been near, how quickly he 
would have said, " Go, my boy;" — and he 
would have been saved. But he was not near. 
The brave fellow wouldn't go without leave. 
The flames swept on. They reached the pow- 
der magazine. There was a tremendous ex- 
plosion. The ship was blown to atoms, — 

" But the noblest thing that perished there 
Was that young, faithful heart." 

We read in English history, that, during the 
reign of the celebrated Queen Elizabeth, there 
was a certain nobleman, known as the Earl of 
Essex, who was the particular favorite of the 
queen. One day, it is said that the queen 
gave him a ring, telling him to keep it, and 
that, if he ever got into any trouble, and was 
in danger of his life, to send that ring to her, 
and she would pardon him whatever offence 
he had committed, and would save his life. 
Some years after, he lost the favor of the 
queen, and committed some great offence 
against the government. He was tried for his 
offence, found guilty, and condemned to be 



THE BEST FRIEND. 145 

beheaded. Now, if the queen had only been 
near, he could have shown her the ring, and 
she would have pardoned and saved hirn ; 
but she was far off. Then he concluded to 
send the ring to her. He gave it to a certain 
lady, who pretended to be his friend, but was 
not. He told her to take it directly to the 
queen, and show it to her. But she kept the 
ring. The queen never saw it, and the Earl 
of Essex lost his head. 

But Jesus is the best friend, because he is 
always near. No time, or place, or distance 
can ever separate him from his people. 
When Jacob went out from his father's house, 
all by himself, to go to his Uncle Laban's, he 
felt very sad and lonely. But God appeared 
to him, the very first night after he left home, 
in that beautiful dream which he had about 
the ladder reaching down from heaven to 
earth, with the angels going up and down on 
it. And God said to him, " I am with thee, 
and will keep thee in all places whither thou 
goest, and will bring thee to thy father's 
house again." 

10 



146 THE GREAT PILOT. 

What a sad condition Jonah was in when 
the sailors threw him overboard, and the 
whale had swallowed him alive, and carried 
him, in that living prison, far down into the 
depths of the sea ! Suppose all the kings in 
the earth had been Jonah's friends, — what, 
could they have done for him ? Nothing. 
But Jesus was his friend. He prayed to him, 
and he brought him safe to land. 

Jesus is the best friend, because he is the 
oldest friend ; because he is the kindest friend ; 
because he is the ablest friend ; and because he is 
always near. 

The most important thing in the world for 
you, my dear children, is to have Jesus for 
your friend. He wants to have you for his 
friends. If you give him your hearts, and try 
to love and serve him, he will be your friend, 
and then you will be happy forever. Here is 
a short prayer, which the youngest of you 
may use : 

Lord Jesus Christ, teach me to love Thee, 
and be Thou my friend forever. 

Offer this prayer with all your heart, every 



THE BEST FRIEND. 147 

day ; and then Jesus, the Best Friend, — " the 
friend that sticketh closer than a brother," — 
will be your friend and will bring you safe to 
heaven at last. 



VI. 

Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely. — Proverbs 1: 33. 



VI. 

WHqobo juarkeneilj unto me ujjall bfcoell smfelg. — Proverbs 1 : 33. 

Suppose you should see a mad dog, or a 
runaway horse, racing down the street as you 
were going quietly along, — would you not 
want to get out of the way ? Yes ; for nobody 
likes to be in the way of meeting such dangers. 
You would want to stand aside, or step into an 
open door, or get into a place of safety. We 
all love to be safe when danger is near. Look 
at the locks and bolts upon the doors of our 
houses. What do we put them there for ? 
To keep us safe from thieves and robbers. 
Look at the lightning-rods, running up the 
walls of our houses and stretching up above 
the top of the roofs. What are these for, but 
to keep us safe from lightning ? When our 
ships and steamers go to sea, they have life- 
boats with them. What for ? Why, in case 
of shipwreck, that the crew and passengers 
may be safe. 

(151) 



152 THE GREAT PILOT. 

You have all read books about the fairies. 
Those curious little creatures — of course 
they never really existed at all — were sup- 
posed to have the power of taking care of peo- 
ple, and of keeping them safe. 

In Africa, and other heathen countries, the 
people make great use of what are called gree- 
grees. These are charms, made out of vari- 
ous trifling things, and which are supposed to 
have the power of guarding them against 
witches and sickness, and of thus keeping 
them safe. Now, all these things show us that 
there is a very strong desire in the hearts of 
people to be safe. We all have this desire. 
When we know there is any danger near us, 
we all want to be guarded against it, or to be 
safe. God knew that we should have this 
feeling, and, therefore, he has written a great 
many of the promises of his blessed Word on 
purpose to show us what we must do in order 
to be safe. For this reason God calls himself 
the Fortress, the Refuge, the Hiding-place of 
his people. For this reason we read, in one 
place in the Bible, " The name of the Lord is 



THE SECRET OF SAFETY. 153 

a strong tower : the righteous fleeth into it 
and is safe." Proverbs 18 : 10. And so, in 
our text, we read, " Whoso hearkeneth unto 
me shall dwell safely" This promise is not 
made for everybody. It is only made for 
those who "hearken" unto God. You all 
know what " hearken " means. It means to 
hear what God says, and mind it, or do it. 
Now, God tells us all to repent and believe in 
Jesus. He tells us to love him and try to 
please him in everything that we do. But if 
we do this, we are Christians. To hearken 
unto God, therefore, means to be true Chris- 
tians. And the important lesson which this 
verse teaches us is the secret of safety. It 
teaches us that Christian people, or those who 
love Jesus, are always safe. They dwell 
safely. The angels of God encamp around 
them. The Lord himself is their keeper. He 
holds them in the hollow of his hand. He 
keeps them as the apple of his eye. But this 
doesn't mean that, if you become a Christian, 
you will never get sick, or never die. It 
doesn't mean that when Christian soldiers go 



154 THE GREAT PILOT. 

to war, they will never get wounded, or be 
killed. It doesn't mean that if Christian 
sailors go to sea, they will never be ship- 
wrecked or drowned. But it does mean that 
nothing of this kind will ever be allowed to 
happen to them, unless God sees it will be 
best for them. Sometimes sickness, trial, or 
disappointment is the very best thing that can 
happen to a person. When God sees that 
this is the case, he will let that sickness, or 
trial, or disappointment come. But when it 
comes, he watches over it carefully, and di- 
rects it in such a way that it will only do good 
to the person to whom it is sent. 

For example : suppose I had a great lump of 
golden ore, as big as my head, brought to me 
from a gold mine in California. I can see the 
pieces of gold shining and sparkling in it, here 
and there. I know it is worth a great deal of 
money. But then the gold is not pure. It is 
all mixed up with earth and pieces of rock. 
And in this state it is of no use. Before it is 
fit to be coined into money, or worked up into 
jewelry, it must be entirely separated from the 



THE SECRET OF SAFETY. 155 

earth and rock that are mingled with it. And 
how is this to be done ? Why, the lump of ore 
must be broken into pieces, and put into a fur- 
nace, and a fire of great heat must be kindled on 
it, till the whole mass becomes red-hot, and 
then the gold will melt and run away from all 
the worthless earth mixed up with it, and will 
come out of the furnace entirely pure. Sup- 
pose, now, that my lump of ore was alive, and 
could think, and feel, and hear, and speak. I 
come to it one day with a great sledge-hammer 
in my hand, and say, " My dear golden fellow, 
I want to get you separated from all this good- 
for-nothing earth that is clinging to you. But 
in order to do this, I shall have to hit you 
some hard blows, and break you into pieces, and 
put you in the furnace. I know that this will 
be very trying for you to bear ; but it is the 
only way in which you can be made pure, and 
fit to be used as gold. I will take care, how- 
ever, that you are not injured. Not a grain 
of you shall be lost. You will be just as safe 
in the furnace as out of it ; so don't be afraid." 
Well, if my lump of ore was a reasonable one, 



156 THE GREAT PILOT. 

and had confidence in me, it would heave a 
sigh, or drop a tear, perhaps; but then it 
would soon brace itself up with a noble resolu- 
tion, and say, " It's all for the best, I know, 
— hammer away." 

Now, God's people in this world are like gold 
in the ore. I mean by this they have a good 
many sins and imperfections remaining about 
them ; and the trials and afflictions, which God 
permits to come upon them in this life, are the 
hammer by which he breaks them in pieces, 
and the furnace by which he melts and purifies 
them. 

For instance, there is Joseph. When he 
was a youth, in his father's house, he was like a 
lump of golden ore. But God wanted to have 
this ore purified and made ready for the im- 
portant use he had to make of it. And so 
Joseph was persecuted by his brethren, and 
sold into Egypt, and put in prison there. 
These trials were like the heavy blows of the 
hammer, and the fierce flames of the furnace. 
They purified the gold of Joseph's character, 
and made him fit for his high position in the 



THE SECRET OF SAFETY. 157 

court of Pharaoh. And Joseph was safe all 
the while he was going through those trials. 
God was with him in the pit where his brethren 
cast him ; and God was with him in the prison 
in Egypt. And so, through all his trials, Jo- 
seph found the words of our text to be 
true : " Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall 
dwell safely." This shows us the secret of 
safety. 

Here we start a question. From what are 
Grod's people safe? Three answers may be 
given to this question. In the first place, they 
are safe from evil spirits. 

The Bible tells us that Satan is the head or 
chief of these evil spirits. It tells us, too, that 
" like a roaring lion he goeth about continual- 
ly seeking whom he may devour." And what 
is true of Satan is true of all the other evil 
spirits ; they are going about, all the time, 
trying to lead people into sin, and so to de- 
stroy them. We cannot see these evil spirits, 
when they come about us, any more than we 
can the good angels. And we should know 
nothing about the way in which they try to do 



158 THE GREAT PILOT. 

people harm, if it were not for what we learn 
from the Bible. There is one case mentioned 
in the Bible which shows us, very clearly, how 
it is that Satan and his evil spirits try to injure 
and destroy God's people, and how God keeps 
them safe from all their efforts. I refer here 
to the case of Job. Job was a good man. 
God said, when speaking of him, that he was 
" a perfect and an upright man, one tha/t feared 
God and departed from evil, and there was 
none like him in the earth." He had a very 
large family, consisting of ten children : seven 
sons and three daughters. He was very rich, 
too. Now, if you want to show how rich a 
man is, you tell how many thousands or hun- 
dreds of thousands of dollars he owns. But 
then, when Job lived, they reckoned a man's 
wealth by the number of cattle that belonged 
to him. And we are told that Job owned 
seven thousand sheep, and three thousand 
camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and 
five hundred she-asses, and a very great 
household. So that he was the greatest of all 
the men in the East where he lived. He was 



THE SECRET OF SAFETY. 159 

such an uncommonly good man that, as he 
passed along the streets, not only the common 
people, but even the princes, would stop talk- 
ing, and stand still, and gaze upon him. Peo- 
ple felt that it was a real pleasure just to look 
at him, or to hear him speak. " He was eyes 
to the blind, and feet was he to the lame. The 
blessing of those who were ready to perish 
came upon him; and he caused the widow's 
heart to sing for joy. He was a father to the 
poor, and he delivered the oppressed, and 
those who had none to help them." "What a 
lovely character this pious old patriarch must 
have been ! And now just see how Satan tried 
to ruin him. 

It happened one day that God was speak- 
ing to some of the angels about Job. He was 
praising him and saying what an uncommon- 
ly good man he was. Satan heard what the 
Lord said, and he began at once to speak 
against Job. Says he, " I don't believe he is 
a good man at all. He only pretends to be 
good because you have done so much for him. 
Why, you have made a hedge about him, and 



160 THE GREAT PILOT. 

about all that he has. You have never let 
anything hurt him ; and have been pouring 
blessings upon him all his days. Now, just 
stop giving him blessings, and let me take 
away his property, and then we'll see what 
will become of his religion. Why, he'll be 
ready to turn right round, and curse you to 
your face." 

Then God told Satan he might try him. 
So Satan went to make the trial. He got a 
troop of robbers to go and steal Job's oxen. 
He hurled the lightning and the thunderbolts 
upon his sheep, and destroyed them all. He 
sent an army of Chaldeans to carry off his 
camels. His sons and daughters were all 
enjoying themselves at a feast, in the house 
of their elder brother. But while they were 
eating and drinking, Satan raised a mighty 
tempest, which burst upon the . house with 
great violence. The house fell, and all the 
good man's children were killed on the spot. 
All this happened at once. One messenger 
came and told him of the loss of his oxen and 
asses. Before he was done, another came to 



THE SECRET OF SAFETY. 161 

tell him of the loss of his camels. Before he 
was done, another came to tell him of the loss 
of his sheep. And before he was done, anoth- 
er came to tell him the worst tidings of all, — 
of the death of his children. The whole ten 
were killed at a stroke. Not one was left. 
How dreadful this was ! It was like plung- 
ing him into a sea of troubles, and letting all 
its waves roll over him ! And how did Job 
act, under the weight of all this trial ? Did 
he give up his religion, and turn round and 
curse God, as Satan said he would ? Not at 
all. But we read that " Job arose, and rent 
his mantle, and shaved his head," — these 
were the signs people used in those days to ex- 
press great sorrow, — and " fell down upon the 
ground, and worshipped, and said, The Lord 
gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed 
be the name of the Lord." Oh, what a good 
man he was ! 

Then God said to Satan, " Well, what do you 
think of Job now ? " 

" Oh, " said Satan, " he doesn't care much 

for his property or children so long as he on- 
11 



162 THE GREAT PILOT. 

\ 

ly has his health. But just let me take away 
his health, and visit him with pain and sick- 
ness, and then you'll see how he'll curse you." 

God said he might try him again. Then 
Satan went and smote him with a dreadful 
disease, which broke out in painful boils and 
sores from the crown of his head to the sole 
of his foot. And Job laid himself down in the 
dust, and said, " Shall we receive good at the 
hand of the Lord, and shall we not also re- 
ceive evil?" 

Thus God permitted Satan to put Job in 
the furnace of affliction, and to keep him 
there a good while. But he was safe all the 
time. For, as the hymn says, 

" The flame did not hurt him, its only design 

Was his dross to consume, and his gold to refine." 

Job said himself, while he was in this fur- 
nace, " When I am tried, I shall come forth 
as gold." Job 23 : 10. And so it turned out ; 
for after a while God brought him safely out 
of all his troubles. He restored him to 
health. He gave him as many children as he 



THE SECRET OF SAFETY. 163 

had before, and twice as many sheep and ox- 
en and camels and asses. The very best 
thing that ever happened to Job was when 
Satan told lies about him. and persuaded 
God to put him in the furnace. Job was a 
richer, better, happier man afterwards than 
ever he was before ; yes, or than ever he 
would have been, if he had not been put in that 
furnace. He is happier now in heaven for 
it, and he will be happier through all eter- 
nity. So that you see, Satan was really Job's 
best friend, when he only intended to be his 
worst enemy. We read in the Bible that 
God " makes all things work together for 
good to those who love God." And here we 
see how it is that God does it. 

But God made it work for good to others, 
as well as to Job, when Satan tried so hard ta 
injure him. We never should have had the 
example of Job's wonderful patience, if it had 
not been for this. This example has been a 
blessing to the church in all ages. And then 
we should not have understood, as we do now, 
how entirely Satan is under God's control if 



164 THE GREAT PILOT. 

it had not been for what he did to Job. He 
has wonderful power, but he can't use any 
of it till God lets him. He is a great, roar- 
ing lion, but he is a chained lion, and Gcod 
holds the chain in his own hand. Job was 
safe from Satan's power. He wanted very 
much to injure or destroy Job ; but he could 
not touch a hair of his head till God gave 
him leave. And then he could not go a hair's 
breadth beyond what God told him he might 
do. And Satan has no more power over you 
or me, or any of God's people, than he had 
over Job. He may hate us as much as he 
pleases, but he can't hurt us while we are 
God's people, or while we "hearken unto 
him." There is truth in the lines of the 
hymn which says that, 

" Satan trembles when he sees 

The weakest saint upon his knees." 

" Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell 
safely." Prom what are God's people safe ? 
Our first answer is, they are safe from evil spir- 



THE SECRET OF SAFETY. 165 

Our second answer is, they are safe from 

EVIL MEN. 

The best way of showing you how God 
keeps his people safe from evil men will be by 
giving you some illustrations of it. Here is 
one illustration. 

Many years ago some Moravian mission- 
aries were sailing from London, to the island 
of St. Thomas, in the West Indies, where they 
were going to labor among the slaves. One 
day, when they were about half way across 
the ocean, they saw a pirate vessel bearing 
down upon them. The vessel in which the 
missionaries were sailing was called the Bri- 
tannia. The captain resolved to put his ship 
in order, and arranged his men so as to make 
the best defence he could. But while the 
sailors were getting ready to fight, the mission- 
aries went down into the cabin to get ready to 
pray. They felt as if they could do more 
good in that way than in any other. And 
that was true. 

The pirate drew nearer, and, as soon as he 
came within range of his guns, he began to fire 



166 THE GREAT PILOT. 

away. He had his grappling irons ready. 
These were strong, sharp hooks, fixed to long 
ropes, to throw into the ship and hold her 
fast, while they came on board to rob, and 
murder as they pleased. The captain of the 
English vessel saw no chance of escaping from 
such an enemy, and his heart sunk at the 
dreadful prospect before him. He little knew 
what powerful helpers he had in those few 
praying missionaries. But amidst all the 
noise occasioned by the heavy tramp of the 
men on deck, and by the dreadful roar of the 
cannons, their fervent prayers were going up 
to heaven. 

Presently the pirates tried to throw their 
grappling irons across to the English ship ; 
but, just at that moment, their own ship 
gave a violent lurch, and the men who held 
the irons were thrown into the sea. The pi- 
rate made another trial, but the same thing 
happened again. Then he resolved to fire at 
the Britannia till she sunk. But he failed in 
this also. Sometimes the balls would miss 
their aim, and fall into the sea. At other 



THE SECRET OF SAFETY. 107 

times, the dense smoke from the discharge of 
the guns would hang strangely about his ship, 
so that he could not see where the other vessel 
was. At last, after one of these discharges, 
when a sudden gust of wind cleared away the 
smoke, which had been hanging round his 
vessel, like a curtain, he saw, to his amaze- 
ment, the Britannia, with her sails all spread to 
the wind, bounding away from him and fairly 
out of his reach. Thus those good mission- 
aries, who hearkened unto God, were kept safe 
from evil men. 

About five years afterwards, that pirate 
captain met those missionaries on the island 
of St. Thomas. He was not a pirate then, but 
a Christian, and he told them that the wonder- 
ful way in which their vessel had escaped him 
was the first thing that led him to think 
seriously about his wicked life and to resolve 
to change it. 

Here is another illustration of the way in 
which God keeps his people safe from evil men. 

Many years ago the people in Scotland, 
called Covenanters, used to be very much per- 



168 THE GREAT PILOT. 

secuted, on account of their religion. They 
were forbidden to meet together for worship ; 
and bands of soldiers were kept marching 
about the country for the purpose of hunting 
up those who held meetings, and of putting 
them in prison. On one occasion, a little com- 
pany of these persecuted people had met to 
have worship, in a little dell, or valley, on the 
side of a lofty hill. In the midst of their wor- 
ship, they found that a troop of dragoons were 
coming over the hill, and would pass by in 
sight of them. What could they do ? There 
was no place to hide in, and no time to get 
out of the way. They remained where they 
were, simply praying to God to take care of 
them ; and God kept them safe, in this way. 
There were mists and clouds scattered over 
the side of the mountain. These seemed to 
be floating about, without any guidance. But 
just before the horsemen came in sight, over 
the top of the hill, these clouds gathered, and 
settled down over the dell in which the Cov- 
enanters were assembled. The mists were 
spread out like a curtain all round about them, 



THE SECRET OF SAFETY. 169 

so that, though the soldiers rode by the place, 
within about a hundred and fifty yards, they 
never saw one of them. Thus you see how 
these people, " who hearkened unto the Lord, 
dwelt safely. " They were safe from evil men. 

Here is one more illustration of this part of 
our subject. 

Some years ago, there lived in England 
an excellent minister, whose name was Row- 
land Hill. Mr. Hill had a gardener, who had 
always been considered an honest, worthy 
man. But, at last, it was found out that he 
had been guilty of a number of robberies in 
the neighborhood. He would never have 
been suspected, only he was caught in the act. 
He was tried, found guilty, and condemned 
to be executed. Of course Mr. Hill visited 
him, while he was confined in the jail. During 
one of these interviews he confessed the many 
crimes of which he had been guilty. " How 
did it happen, James," said Mr. Hill, "that 
you never robbed me, when you had so many 
opportunities of doing it ? " "I tried to, sir, 
but I couldn't. Do you remember the juniper- 



170 THE GREAT PILOT. 

bush in the garden near the dining-room 
window ? Many a time I hid myself there at 
night, intending, which I could easily have 
done, to get into the house, and plunder it ; 
but, sir, I was afraid : something seemed to 
say to me, ' He is a man of God : this is a 
house of prayer : if you break in, you'll surely 
be found out ; ' so I never could pluck up 
courage to do it. And then there is that old 
Mr. Rugg," — referring to one of the very 
best men belonging to Mr. Hill's church, — 
" I often made up my mind to rob him, but I 
never could do it. I knew he was in the 
habit of carrying a great deal of money in his 
pocket, and many times have I hid myself be- 
hind the hedge of the lane leading to his 
house ; he has passed within a yard of me 
when he was going home from the prayer- 
meeting ; but I could not stir. I did not dare 
to touch so good a man. I always began to 
tremble as soon as he came near me, and gave 
up the thought altogether, for I know he was a 
holy man." 

These were men who hearkened unto the 



THE SECRET OF SAFETY. 171 

Lord ; and here you see how he caused them to 
" dwell safely." They were safe from evil men. 

But there is a third answer to be given to the 
question, from what are God's people safe ? 
They are safe from all other evils. 

There are a great many other dangers, in 
this world, to which we are exposed, besides 
the two already spoken of; but those who 
" hearken unto the Lord shall dwell safely," 
in the midst of them all. Noah was in great 
danger, when the flood came to destroy an un- 
godly world ; but he dwelt safely in the ark 
while the waters were sweeping round the 
world. The children of Israel were in great 
danger, in the waste howling wilderness, 
through which they had to pass ; but they 
dwelt safely there during all the forty years of 
their journeyings. Daniel was in the midst of 
great danger when thrown into the den of 
hungry lions ; and yet he really never was safer, 
when sleeping in his own chamber, than he 
was all through that night which he spent 
among those ravenous beasts. His three 
friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, 



172 THE GREAT PILOT. 

were in great danger when they were cast into 
the midst of the burning, fiery furnace ; and 
yet how safely they walked up and down 
amidst its scorching flames, without having 
even a hair of their head singed ! 

And the God who did all these wonderful 
things, of which we read in the Bible, to cause 
his people to dwell safely, can keep them safe 
now, in the midst of danger, as easily as he 
did then. 

Let me give you some examples to prove 
this. There was a good man who lived in 
New England, many years ago, whose name 
was Elias Boudinot. He was the founder of 
the American Bible Society. He was return- 
ing home in his chaise late, one dark night, 
from a neighboring town where he had been 
attending court. There had been a freshet 
while he was gone, which had carried away all 
the planks from the long bridge which lay in 
his accustomed path. He knew nothing about 
this ; so he drove right on, as usual, and got 
home in safety. His friends asked him by 
what road he came. " Why, the usual road, 



THE SECRET OF SAFETY. 173 

of course," he replied. " That's impossible," 
said they, " for all the planks have been 
washed away." " I don't know anything about 
that," said he, " but I know that I drove my 
horse across that bridge, planks or no planks." 
His friends said that either he must be out of 
his mind, or else he was telling them a false- 
hood. He told them he would go with them 
in the morning and see. Accordingly they 
went the next morning, and when they arrived 
there, they found the tracks of the carriage at 
either end of the bridge, and along the beams 
which lay across it. There was one beam on 
each side, and another beam in the middle ; 
and in the deep darkness of the night, when 
neither the horse nor the rider could see where 
he was going, the feet of the horse were 
guided, by an unseen hand, on the middle 
beam and the wheels on the side beams ; and 
the same gracious, but Almighty hand kept 
them from turning aside, either to the right 
hand or to the left, till the river was safely 
crossed. 

This is a simple fact ; but it shows us how 



174 THE GREAT PILOT. 

the God of the Bible can keep his people safe 
from all evil now, as easily as he did in old 
times. 

I dare say you have often wondered at the 
way in which God kept the prophet Elijah 
safe, during the famine in Israel, by causing 
the ravens to bring him bread and meat every 
day. And yet G-od often provides for his 
people now, in a very similar way. A good 
many years ago, there was a dreadful massacre 
in Prance, known as the massacre of St. 
Bartholomew. For three days every Protes- 
tant who was found was killed. Admiral de 
Coligny, the chief man among the Protestants, 
was put to death in his own house, by order 
of the King of Prance. The admiral's chap- 
lain, whose name was Merlin, managed to 
escape from the murderers, and concealed 
himself in a hay-loft. Here, he was obliged to 
remain for weeks. He was afraid to come out 
and seek for food, lest he should be put to 
death. But the same God, who sent the ra- 
vens to keep the prophet alive, sent a hen to 
keep the chaplain alive. This hen came every 



THE SECRET OF SAFETY. 175 

day, and laid an egg close by his place of con- 
cealment. Thus his life was preserved till the 
danger that threatened him had passed away. 

God can make use of the smallest and the 
meanest things in promoting the safety and 
comfort of his people. 

There was a good prince once, who had 
been very much troubled by the multitude of 
flies that infested his palace, and the spiders, 
too, which were all the time weaving their 
webs to catch the flies. He was so troubled 
with them one day that he said he could not 
see what God had made the flies and the spi- 
ders for, and that for his part he would like to . 
kill every one of them. 

One day, after a great battle, this prince, 
who had been defeated, was obliged to fly from 
his enemies. He was wandering about in the 
woods, and, being very weary, he lay down to 
sleep. Presently there came along a soldier 
belonging to his enemies. He saw the prince, 
and, with his drawn sword in his hand, was 
hastening toward him, intending to kill him. 
Just then God caused a fly to light on his ear, 



176 THE GREAT PILOT. 

and tickle him. This awoke the prince, who, 
seeing the soldier coming toward him, instant- 
ly drew his sword and killed him. 

The next night, the prince hid himself in a 
cave in the same wood. As soon as he had 
entered it, and lain down to sleep, God caused 
a spider to come and weave her web across 
the entrance. In the morning, two soldiers, 
belonging to the army which had defeated the 
prince, were going through the wood, search- 
ing for him. As they came in sight of the 
cave, one of them said, — 

" I dare say he's in this cave ; let's go in and 
see." 

" No," replied the other, " that's impossible. 
Don't you see that spider's web stretched 
across the entrance ? He never could have got 
in without brushing away that web. Wher- 
ever else he is, you may be sure he is not 
there. So it's not worth while to waste time 
in looking." And so they passed on. As 
soon as they were gone, the prince fell on his 
knees and thanked God for having saved his 
life yesterday by a fly, and now by a spider. 



THE SECRET OF SAFETY. 177 

He confessed how wrong he had been in 
speaking against any of God's works and re- 
solved not to do so again. 

Two very interesting instances of the way 
in which those who hearken unto God dwell 
safely are told of Bishop Gobat, the present 
English Bishop of Jerusalem. Before he was 
made bishop, he had, for many years, been a 
missionary among the Druses in the moun- 
tains of Lebanon, and other tribes in the wild- 
est parts of Syria. Here he was much per- 
secuted, exposed to many dangers, and often 
greatly discouraged. On one occasion, while 
journeying on foot over the mountains, the 
thought of his many dangers and his little suc- 
cess discouraged him greatly, and made him 
feel very sad. He felt his need of comfort, and 
resolved to stop and spend some time in 
prayer. Looking round for a suitable place, 
he saw a cave in the side of the mountain. 
He went in some distance, till he was hid 
from view in the darkness of the cave. There 
he kneeled down and poured out his heart 
to God in earnest prayer. He told him of all 
12 



178 THE GREAT PILOT. 

his dangers, trials, and discouragements, and 
prayed that he would keep him in safety, and 
give him strength and comfort to go on with 
his work. 

When he had done praying, he looked 
round about him in the darkness of the cave, 
and lo ! not far from him, over in the cor- 
ner, were two fierce eyes glaring, like balls 
of fire, upon him. It was a hyena with 
her young. He had gone into the den of that 
savage creature, and kneeled down to pray so 
near her that a single leap would have brought 
her to him. Yet she had not stirred, nor of- 
fered to harm him. He left that cave and 
went on his way encouraged and comforted. 
He said to himself, " Surely, the God who has 
kept me safe in the very jaws of this wild 
beast will keep me safe from all other evils." 

What a beautiful illustration this is of our 
text, " Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall 
dwell safely." 

But there is another story about this good 
man, Bishop Gobat, which I must tell you 
before 1 stop. And this is connected with a 



*^i^ : 




THE SECRET OF SAFETY. 179 

hyena, too. The circumstance occurred before 
he was made bishop, and while he was a mis- 
sionary in that part of the country of which 
we have just been speaking. 

One day, a messenger came to him from a 
heathen chief, begging him to come to him, as 
he wished to talk with him about the religion 
of Christ. This was good news to the mission- 
ary. He sent word to the chief that he would 
come and visit him in a few days. But then 
he was taken sick, and was unable to go for 
several days. Then came a second messenger 
with a more earnest invitation. He told him 
he would go with him the next day, and he 
prepared for the journey. But, just as he was 
leaving his house, a letter was brought him 
saying that the vessel in which he had en- 
gaged his passage to go to Malta would sail 
the next day at noon. What was he to do ? 
The messenger told him that if they set out at 
once he would be able to spend the night with 
the chief, and still to reach the ship in time, 
the next day. So Mr. Gobat concluded to 
start. 



180 THE GREAT PILOT. 

The messenger and some of the Druses 
went with him. Their journey lay through 
the woods and over the wild mountains. At 
one of the villages, on the way, they were de- 
layed several hours. Then they lost their 
way, and before they found it again it began 
to get dark. The guides said if they went 
on, they could reach the village, where the 
chief lived, about midnight; but that the 
path went winding round among frightful 
precipices, and that it was a very danger- 
ous one to travel in the dark. The good 
missionary thought for a moment what they 
had better do. But his heart was burning 
with a desire to tell the chief about Jesus, 
so he said, " Well, let us trust in God and go 
on." So they started. Presently the moon 
came out. Suddenly, where the path was 
very narrow and running close by the edge of 
a great precipice, they saw, by the light of the 
moon, a huge hyena lying right across the 
path. The Druses shouted and threw stones 
at the savage beast. Then it sprang up and 
ran before them in the direction in which they 



THE SECRET OF SAFETY. 181 

were to go. But now the Druses came to a 
stand. They said it was a saying among their 
people, that " the way a hyena goes is an 
unlucky way." They wouldn't go another 
step. Mr. Gobat tried to persuade them to 
go on, but in vain. Then the messenger from 
the chief told the missionary that if they 
should stop for the night at a neighboring vil- 
lage, they could still, by starting very early 
in the morning, have time for him to spend 
an hour with the chief, and be able to get 
back to the sea-coast before the vessel sailed. 
Mr. G. resolved to do this. But, as they were 
all very tired with their journey, instead of 
waking early in the morning they slept till a 
late hour ; and when they woke it was too late 
to go on. So, much against his will, Mr. G. 
was obliged to give. up the visit to the chief. 
He had to hasten down the mountain to the 
coast, which he reached only just in time to 
take his passage in the ship. All through the 
voyage he reproached himself for having lost 
the opportunity of visiting the chief; and it 
seemed very strange that the hyena should 



182 THE GREAT PILOT. 

have been permitted to come in his way when 
he was so near reaching the end of his jour- 
ney. 

But while he was at Malta, he received a 
letter from a friend at his home in Lebanon, 
who told him that the chief had no de- 
sire to hear about Christ at all, but that the 
whole thing was a wicked plot, which he had 
arranged in order to get the missionary into 
his power, that he might put him to death. 
When the chief heard of the wonderful way in 
which his wicked plan had been disappointed, 
he was convinced that the missionary was the 
servant of God, and he became his true friend. 

And thus we see how true the words of the 
text are, " Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall 
dwell safely." 

God's people are safe, in the first place , from 
evil spirits ; safe, in the second place, from evil 
men; and safe, in the third place, from all other 
evils. 

My dear young friends, I have tried to tell 
you a great secret in this sermon. It is the 
secret of true safety. If you would be safe at 



THE SECRET OP SAFETY. 183 

all times, and in all places, love Jesus and 
make him your friend. "Hearken unto him," 
and then you will dwell safely. The last 
verse of the psalm we often sing at these ser- 
vices says, — 

"Fear him, ye saints, and you will then 
Have nothing else to fear : 
Make you his service your delight, 
Your wants shall be his care." 

I will close with quoting two verses of one 
of John Newton's beautiful hymns, which tells 
us the same truth very sweetly, — 

" That man no guard nor weapon needs 
Whose heart the blood of Jesus knows ; 
But safe may pass, when duty leads, 
Through burning sands or mountain snows. 

" His love possessing, I am blest ; 

Secure, whatever change may come. 
Whether I go to east or west, 
With him I still shall be at home." 



VII. 



■i ffiegi Batw. 



A name which is above every name. — Phil. 2:9. 



VII. 

%, mmz folntjr is abota efarg xvslxuz. — PM. 2:9. 

This refers to Jesus. It is his name which 
is spoken of here. His name was first heard, 
in this world, from the lips of an angel. The 
angel Gabriel came down to tell about him 
before he was born ; and he told his mother 
that when he was born she must call his name 
Jesus. I suppose you can all tell me the 
meaning of the name Jesus ? It is Saviour ; 
and he was to receive this name, the angel said, 
" because he shall save his people from their 
sins." There are a great many things said in 
the Bible about the name Jesus. In one 
place it is called a " holy " name ; in another, 
it is called a " worthy " name, in another, an 
" excellent " name, a " great " name, a " glo- 
rious " name, a " blessed " name, an " ever- 
lasting " name, a " wonderful " name ; and 
here in our text, " a name which is above 

(187) 



188 THE GREAT PILOT. 

every name." This is the best name in all 
the world. 

The subject of our present sermon, then, 
will be " The Best Name." And I wish to 
give you four reasons why the name of Jesus 
is the best name. 

The first is, because it is so simple. It is a 
very little word of but five letters. Now, 
some persons love to give their children long 
names, and great names, and many names. 
Why, I was reading, only the other day, about 
a list of names given not long ago to a little 
princess. It began, Donna Maria, Theresa, Jo- 
sephine, Eugenia, Louisa, Clementina, Imacu- 
lata, and so it went on to some fourteen or 
fifteen names, all for one little baby girl. 
" But God's thoughts are not as our thoughts, 
nor his ways as our ways ; " for, when God 
was going to send his only begotten Son into 
the world, — the greatest and most glorious 
and blessed Being that ever lived, — he only 
chose one little name, " Thou shalt call his 
name Jesus" There are, indeed, a great 
many other names in the Bible, which refer to 



THE BEST NAME. 189 

Jesus. He is called The Christ, The Messiah, 
The Shiloh, The Lord, The Redeemer, The 
Morning Star, The Sun of Righteousness, The 
Lily of the Valley, The Rose of Sharon, The 
Plant of Renown, The Balm of Gilead ; and 
many other titles are applied to him. In- 
deed, almost everything useful and beautiful 
is used in the Bible to represent some part of 
the character of Jesus. But, out of all these, 
the name which God chose to give him at his 
birth, and the name which he most loves his 
people to use, when praying to him, or speak- 
ing of him, is the name Jesus. This is the 
best of all names. And the first reason for 
this is because it is so simple. 

It is best, in the second place, because it is 
so full of meaning. It is a little name, but 
at the same time it is a great name. It is 
both little and great. 

There was an infidel once walking in the 
country, who met a little boy with a New Tes- 
tament under his arm. He stopped him and 
said, " My little man, what book is that you 
have ? " " It is a New Testament, sir," said 



190 THE GREAT PILOT. 

the boy. " Do you believe there is a God ? " 
asked the man. "Yes," said the little boy, 
looking with surprise into his face, " I know 
there is a God." " Well," said the man, who 
wanted to make fun of the little fellow and of 
his religion, " will you tell me, is your God a 
little God or a great God ? " Looking up again, 
the boy said, " Well, sir, he is both:' " Ah," 
said the man, " how can that be ? " " Why, sir, 
he is so little that he can come and dwell in 
my wicked heart, yet he is so great that all the 
world can't hold him." 

So it is with the name of Jesus ; it is so 
little that almost every child may understand 
something about it ; and yet it is so great, so 
vast, that you will never be able to tell all 
that is in it. Our names are very little things, 
and so are we that the names belong to, but 
yet they have a meaning. The name John 
means " the gift of God ; " James means the 
" Supplanter ; " William means " the Shield 
of many ; " Charles means strong ; Richard 
means liberal ; David means beloved ; George 
means a farmer or husbandman : Francis 



THE BEST NAME. 191 

means free ; Samuel means a prophet, — one 
who hears from God ; Mary means either ex- 
alted or bitter ; Margaret means a pearl, pre- 
cious ; Jane means gracious ; Ann means mer- 
ciful ; Lucy means light, clear ; Elizabeth 
means the oath of God ; Emma means either a 
nurse, — that is, one who is affectionate, — or a 
bee, one who is busy or industrious. Our 
names are very little things. They are like 
little vessels of water, into which you can dip 
your finger to the bottom, and tell how deep 
they are in a moment ; while the name of 
Jesus, with the glorious character it belongs 
to, is like the great ocean, without bounds and 
without bottom. There are shallow places, 
along the shore of the ocean, where a child 
may wade in safety, and then there are other 
places so deep that the longest line cannot find 
the bottom. And just so it is with the name 
of Jesus. All that is in the Bible grows out 
of it. The name of Jesus stands for the whole 
Bible ; and all that it contains was written to 
help us to understand the meaning of this one 
name. The Bible is the revelation of Jesus 



192 THE GREAT PILOT. 

Christ ; and there is nothing in it from first to 
last that is not intended to teach us something 
about him, and his wonderful name. You 
know, my dear children, if you take up any 
book in our language, to read, all the words 
in it are made up from the twenty-six letters 
of the alphabet. Now the five letters in the 
name of Jesus are the alphabet of the Bible. 
All its histories, all its prophecies, all its 
promises, all its prose and all its poetry, have 
something to do with Jesus, and are made up, 
as it were, out of the letters of his name. 

We may study the Bible all the days of our 
life, even if we should live to be as old as 
Methuselah, and we shall always find some- 
thing new in it about the name of Jesus ; and 
if we should go to heaven, there, too, we shall 
study this blessed name for millions and mil- 
lions of years, and we shall never understand 
all that is in it. This, then, is the second rea- 
son why it is the best of all names : because 
it is so full of meaning. 

The third reason why it is the best name in 
the world is, because it is so full of power. 



THE BEST NAME. 193 

Oh, there is wonderful power in it ! When 
the apostles were on earth they went about cast- 
ing out devils, and doing many wonderful 
works ; and it was by the name of Jesus they 
did them all. You know Moses did many 
wonderful works with his rod ; but the apos- 
tles did their works by the power of this name ; 
and once, when Peter and John saw a poor, 
lame man sitting at the gate of the temple, 
they came to him, and said, u In the name of 
Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk ; " and 
when he heard this name, he rose up and 
walked. 

There is power in this name to do a great 
many things. It has power to make people 
good. 

We read in the Bible about the conversion 
of the apostle Paul, and that was effected by 
this name. Before his conversion, St. Paul 
was a very wicked man, and he persecuted 
Christians because they loved the name of 
Jesus ; casting them into prison, and even put- 
ting them to death. He was going one day to 
the city of Damascus, to get the Christians 

13 



194 THE GRRAT PILOT. 

there, and put them in prison and kill tlieni. 
And while he was on his way, a great light, 
above the brightness of the sun, shone around 
him in his path. He fell to the earth, very 
much astonished. Then he heard a voice, 
speaking to him out of heaven, which said, 
" Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? " On 
hearing this, he was still more astonished, and 
said, " Who art thou, Lord ? " and the voice 
answered, " I am Jesus whom thou persecut- 
est." And when Paul heard that name, he 
understood what it meant. He felt the power 
of it. It changed him at once. It took away 
all the wicked feeling that was in his heart, 
and he became a Christian. He learned to 
love the name of Jesus. And when he once 
began to understand the meaning, and feel 
the preciousness of this name, although it oc- 
casioned him the loss of all his earthly posses- 
sions and prospects, he felt it was a great gain, 
because the knowledge of Jesus was so excel- 
lent. And then, instead of being a persecut- 
or, he became a preacher. He was the great- 
est preacher of that day, or, perhaps, of any 



THE BEST NAME. 195 

other. And God made him an apostle, to 
carry the gospel all over the earth, among the 
Gentiles. What power there must have been 
in the name of Jesus, to make so good a man 
out of one who was so wicked. 

You have heard of the missionaries who go 
to all parts of the earth to preach the gospel. 
And I suppose you have heard about the mis- 
sionaries who went to Greenland, that land of 
perpetual ice and snow. The people there 
were very ignorant. They knew nothing about 
Jesus, and the missionaries thought they were 
not ready to hear about him, until they had 
learned many other things ; and so they began 
to teach them these things first. They taught 
them that there was a God, who made the 
world, and that he was everywhere present. 
They taught them that it was wrong to lie, or 
swear, or steal ; and they spent twelve or four- 
teen years in teaching them about these things, 
before they began to tell them about Jesus. 
But it did them no good. They got no better. 
One day, however, the missionaries began to 
read to them in the New Testament, about 



196 THE GREAT PILOT. 

Jesus, about his birth arid life, his crucifixion 
and death. This awakened their attention at 
once, and made a great impression upon them. 
When they heard it, they crowded around the 
missionaries, and said, " Oh, tell us that over 
again ! " They repeated the story to them, and 
read to them the whole history of Jesus, until 
these poor people began to weep over their 
sins, and cry out, " What must we do to be 
saved ? " Then numbers of them were con- 
verted, and it was the name of Jesus which 
made them Christians. Ah, there is a great 
power in the name to make people good. 

And there is a great power in the name of 
Jesus to make people rich as well as good. 

I dare say, you have all read the story of the 
" Forty Thieves." It is not a true story, but it 
does very well to illustrate the point of which I 
am now speaking. You know the story says, 
that there was a woodman once, in a forest 
cutting down trees, when he heard a band of 
robbers approaching, and saw their long train 
of horses come winding over the hills, toward 
the place where he was. He quickly climbed 



THE BEST NAME. 197 

into one of the trees, where he could watch 
their motions without being seen. They rode 
up on their horses till they came to a great 
rock ; where, dismounting, the captain of the 
band walked up to the rock, and said, " Open 
Sesame." The very moment this word was 
spoken, a great door flew open, and they all 
went in and stowed away their plunder in the 
cave. The woodman watched in great sur- 
prise while all this was going on. He remem- 
bered the wonderful word " Sesame" which 
opened the door. So he remained quiet until 
the robbers were gone. As soon as they 
were out of sight, he came down from the 
tree, and went up to the rock and cried out, 
"Open Sesame!" Instantly the door flew 
open, and he went in. Then he gazed in won- 
der on all the precious things which were gath- 
ered together. Then he filled his panniers, 
or donkey baskets, with gold and silver, as 
much as the animal could carry, and went 
home a rich man. He was made rich by the 
power of the word " Sesame" But, as I said 
before, the story is not true. 



198 THE GREAT PILOT. 

Now, suppose, my dear children, that there 
was a cave in this country, filled with gold, 
and silver, and jewels ; and that it was locked 
and fastened, so that no key could open it ; but 
suppose there was one word alone that would 
unfasten that door, and that somebody should 
tell you what that word was, and give you per- 
mission to use it, and open the cave, and fill 
your bags with its treasure ; would there not 
be power in that word to make you rich ? But 
I need not tell you, my dear children, that there 
is no such cave of treasures in this world, and 
no such wonderful word to open it. But there 
is something better ; there is a treasury full of 
all good things. There is a door to that treas- 
ury, too ; but it is closed and fastened. No key, 
that man can make, will ever open that treas- 
ury. But yet, there is a key that will open 
it ; and this key is a single word. And if that 
word is used aright, this door will fly open, and 
all who wish may enter in, and get everything 
that is necessary to make them rich and hap- 
py. This treasury is in heaven. The grace 
of God, and all the good things that belong to 



THE BEST NAME. 199 

him are in it. And the name, the only name, 
that will open it is the name of Jesus. Jesus 
said, when he was on earth, " Whatsoever ye 
shall ask the Father, in my name, he will give 
it you." If you are a sinner, and want par- 
don, the name of Jesus will get it for you. If 
your heart is very wicked, and you want to 
have it changed, the name of Jesus will change 
it. If you do not understand the Bible, and 
want to understand it, the name of Jesus will 
secure for you the influence of the Holy Spirit, 
and nothing but this can enable anybody to 
know its meaning. If you have evil passions, 
bad tempers and dispositions, and are striving 
against them, but feel that you cannot help 
yourself, if you seek it in the name of Jesus, 
you will obtain all the aid you need. And, 
whatever you require to make you truly rich 
and happy, he will give you if you ask him 
aright. Oh, there is wonderful power in the 
name of Jesus. 

There is also power in it to make people love 
him. When people understand this name, and 
learn to love Jesus, they love him better than 
anything else in this world. 



200 THE GREAT PILOT. 

There was an old man once, who had loved 
and served Jesus Christ for eighty years, or 
more. He lived in a time when Christians 
were very sorely persecuted, on account of 
their religion. His name was Polycarp. At 
that time, the Roman Emperor was very angry 
with the Christians, and determined to seize 
all he could find, and throw them to the wild 
beasts to be devoured alive. Hearing of Poly- 
carp, he sent for him, and on his appearing 
before him, commanded him to curse the name 
of Jesus. " I cannot do it," the old man 
mildly said. " If you don't, I will throw you 
to the wild beasts. Renounce the name of 
Jesus." Polycarp stood before the emperor, 
with his long, silvery locks, as white as the driv- 
en snow, hanging down over his shoulders, 
and said, — " I have loved Jesus for more 
than eighty years, and he has never disappointed 
or forsaken me — I cannot renounce him 
now." " Go to the wild beasts, then," said 
the wicked tyrant. And he was led out, bless- 
ing God for letting him die a martyr's death. 
He was not willing even to save his life, if he 
could only do it by renouncing Jesus. 



THE BEST NAME. 201 

There was another man, hundreds of years 
after Polycarp's time, who was on his way to 
the stake, to be burned to death. When he 
was walking to the place of execution, his 
wife and children were following him, and 
some one asked him, " Do you love your wife 
and children ? Would you not like to live 
with them ? " " Ah," said he, " I love them 
so, that if I possessed all the gold and silver 
in the world, I would gladly give it to be per- 
mitted to live with them, if it were only in a 
prison ; but, compared with Jesus, I love them 
not at all." What power there must have 
been in the name of Jesus, to make him love 
so much ! 

There was another martyr, who was actually 
tied to the stake, burning to death. The flames 
were wrapping themselves around him, as you 
have seen them do around a burning stick. 
His arms, his hands and fingers were all on 
flame. And yet, before he died, he lifted up 
his burnt and blazing arms, and smote his 
hands together, crying, " None but Jesus ! 
None but Jesus ! " and then his spirit left his 



202 THE GREAT PILOT. 

poor, suffering body. Ah, there is wonderful 
power in this name to make people love Jesus ! 

But it has also power to do one other thing 
and that is, to make people happy. 

But how does Jesus make us happy ? Is it by 
giving houses and lands, — and gold and silver ? 
Not at all, but by making us know and love him. 
This is the great secret of real happiness. 

I was reading, not long ago, about a minister 
who used to visit a poor, sick man in his 
neighborhood. He lived in a very humble 
dwelling. It had but one room and although 
it was a pretty large room, there was very 
little in it. There was a sort of chair, hanging 
down from the ceiling, in which this poor crip- 
ple sat. He was very lame, and could not 
stand, or walk at all, or scarcely move a finger, 
but all day long and all night, too, he sat 
in his chair, propped up with pillows. When 
the minister went to see him, on one occasion, 
he said to him, " My friend, you must feel very 
lonely here, when you have no one in the house 
but yourself — do yotf not ? " " No, sir," said 
he, " I do not feel lonely, for God is with 



THE BEST NAME. 203 

me." And looking on his pillow, he saw a 
Bible there, which his wife had left for him, 
while she had gone out to work, and he had 
been reading one of the Psalms of David. 
" Why," said the minister, " how do you man- 
age ? You seem to be very sick, and in great 
pain ; your limbs are much swollen, and you 
cannot stir without suffering — I wonder you 
can live and be contented." " Well," said 
he, " I did not use to be contented, but since 
I have loved Jesus, he makes me so, and 
though I cannot move or walk, and at times 
can hardly speak, I can still look at the 
beautiful passages in his word ; and that makes 
me glad, and when I cannot praise him with 
my lips, I praise him in my heart. I love my 
Saviour, and he makes me happy." 

Here was one who was poor, friendless, and 
suffering ; yet Jesus could make him happy. 
Yes, there is wonderful power in the name of 
Jesus to make people happy. This, then, is our 
third reason why the name of Jesus is the best 
name : because it is full of power. It has 
power to make people good, — power to make 



204 THE GREAT PILOT. 

them rich, — power to make them love him, 
and power to make them happy. 

There is but one reason more I will give you, 
why the name of Jesus is the best name. And 
that is because it never changes. 

You know, my dear children, that people's 
names often change in this life. All females 
change their names when they are married ; 
and there are many other circumstances which 
lead people to have their names changed. We 
read in the Bible about Abraham's name being 
changed ; and so we do of Jacob's and Peter's 
and Paul's. And people sometimes have their 
names changed now. All our names will be 
changed when we come to die. If you have 
a father or a mother or a dear friend in 
heaven, you know not by what names they are 
called there. You know what their names 
were on earth, but what they are in heaven 
you cannot tell. Jesus says in his word, that 
his people are called by a new name when 
they go to heaven ; but nobody knows what 
that name will be until it is given them. A 
wonderful name, indeed, this will be, and 



THE BEST NAME. 205 

a blessed thing it will be for those who re- 
ceive it. 

But the name of Jesus never changes. 
Jesus was his name when he was upon the 
earth ; and Jesus is his name now in heaven. 
And when he comes back again to this earth 
in glory, Jesus will be his name still. 

Have you ever seen a Christian die ? If so, 
you have found, one of the last words upon 
his lips was the name of Jesus. He died 
speaking of Jesus, whispering perhaps the 
words, " Come, Lord Jesus, come, quickly." 
Or if he could not speak distinctly, still his 
lips would be muttering something about 
Jesus. He knew that Jesus was the name of 
his Saviour in this world, and, in the world to 
which he was going, he knew that Jesus would 
be his name still. There is a beautiful hymn 
in the prayer-book which says, 

" His name shall stand forever, — 
That name to us is love." 

For these four reasons, the name of Jesus 
is the best name. Because it is so simple- 



206 THE GREAT PILOT. 

Because it is so full of meaning. Because it 
is so full of power. And because it never 
changes. 

Now, my dear children, can you wonder 
that Christians love the name of Jesus? Look 
at the last of the hymns, in our selection for 
to-day, and see what it says : — 

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds 

In a believer's ear ; 
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, 

And drives away his fear." 

It was thinking of this hymn that made me 
choose the text for our sermon to-day. I trust 
you may all learn to love the name of Jesus, 
and then you will be able to sing this hymn 
with your heart, and you will find great de- 
light in it. Now, children, I want you to do 
two things in regard to this name. I want 
every one of you to pray to God to help you 
to understand it. If God should give you 
grace rightly to know and love this name, it 
will be the most blessed thing for you that 
can possibly be done. To understand the 



THE BEST NAME. 207 

meaning and feel the power of this name, 
will be better for you than to be in possession 
of all the riches this world can give. Oh, 
pray, then, my dear children, pray earnestly, 
now and always, that God may help you to 
understand and love this name " which is 
above every name." 

And I want that you should do one thing 
more. It is just what we are doing in mak- 
ing this anniversary offering, — it is, that wo 
should do all we can to send the knowledge 
of this name to those who are ignorant of it. 
Oh, there are hundreds and thousands who 
never heard it. They know nothing of the 
sweetness, simplicity, and power of this pre- 
cious name. All over the world, there are 
multitudes, who never heard that Jesus lived 
and labored, taught, suffered and died for 
them ; and I want you to do all you can to 
send the knowledge of his sweet name to 
them. I hope this is what we shall always 
live for. It is the only thing in this world 
worth living for ; and I hope and pray that 
God may help us all to love that glorious name 
and spread it all abroad. 



VIII. 

% %m of fife. 



She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her.— Proverbs 
3: 18. 



VIII. 

g\)t is a \xtt of life to %m tjrat lag frol** apM &**♦ — Proverbs 
3: 18. 

What a beautiful thing a tree is ! Its roots 
lie under ground hidden from view. But its 
solid trunk rises up before us with the appear- 
ance of great strength. How pleasantly its- 
branches spread themselves out around the 
trunk ! How beautiful is the form of the 
tree ! The sight of its bright-green leaves is 
refreshing to the eye. The gentle rustling of 
its leaves, as the wind plays among them, is 
music to the ear. Everything about a tree is 
interesting to look upon. It is said of Dr. 
Kitto, who has written so much about the Bi- 
ble, that he loved to look at trees so much that 
he was not willing to have any room for a 
study, unless there was a tree near it which 
he could look at through the window. 

But in our text Solomon is speaking about 
" a tree of life." This is a kind of tree which 

(211) 



212 THE GREAT PILOT. 

none of us have ever seen. But we read 
about such a tree in the beginning of the Bi- 
ble. There we have an account given of the 
beautiful garden in which the Lord put Adam 
and Eve when they were created, and " in the 
midst of the garden was the tree of life" We 
know very little about this tree. I suppose 
it was one of the most beautiful trees in the 
garden. It had the power of making those 
who ate of its fruit to live forever. And it 
is singular, that, when St. John is describing 
the New Jerusalem, or heaven, at the close 
of the book of the Revelation, he tells us that 
he saw the tree of life growing there. When 
we get to heaven we shall know all about this 
wonderful tree. 

But here in our text, Solomon compares 
religion to such a tree. He says, " She is & 
tree of life to them that lay hold upon her." 
Religion is compared to a great many dif- 
ferent things in the Bible. It is compared to 
gold, to silver, and to jewels ; but here it is 
compared to a tree of life. 

The question for us to consider is, why is 



A TREE OF LIFE. 213 

religion like a tree of life ? The answer is, 
that everything you would expect to find in 
such a tree, to help or comfort you, can be 
found in religion. Now let us look at some 
of these things, and we shall see that they 
are the very things we find in religion. 

And the first thing ive should expect to find in 
such a tree, is shelter. 

When it begins to rain, or when we see a 
storm gathering, and there is no house near, 
how naturally we run to the nearest tree for 
shelter from the rain. I say it is natural to 
do this. But it is not safe. It is always bet- 
ter to stay out in the open field, even though 
you get wet through, than to run under a tree 
in a thunder-storm. For the lightning will 
often strike a tree and kill persons under it, 
when they would be safe in the field. Still, I 
say it is natural, when a person is out in the 
rain, to run to a tree for shelter. And so if a 
flood of water should come rushing by, or you 
should see a wild beast near, you would be 
very likely to run to the nearest tree, and try 
to find shelter among its branches. Many a 



214 THE GREAT PILOT. 

traveller, when exposed to danger, has found 
shelter and safety for the night, in the protect- 
ing branches of some shady tree. 

We read about a tribe of people, in the south 
of Africa, whose country is much infested 
with poisonous serpents, and who actually 
build their little houses up among the wide- 
spreading branches of large trees, and live 
there most of the time. Those people truly 
find shelter in their trees. 

We read in history of one of England's 
kings, Charles the second, whose life was 
saved by the shelter he found in a tree. He 
had been defeated in battle, and was obliged 
to flee from his enemies. With a single offi- 
cer, he was separated from all his friends. 
They plunged into a thick wood. Their ene- 
mies pursued them. Selecting a large oak- 
tree, with very thick foliage, they climbed up 
and hid themselves among its branches. 
Their pursuers passed directly under the tree. 
The poor king and his companion saw them 
searching about for him, but they were hid- 
den from view by the leaves of the tree. 



A TREE OF LIFE. 215 

Thus the King of England's proud realms 
found shelter in a tree. That tree stood for 
long, long years afterwards, and was always 
called the royal oak. 

And religion is compared to a tree of life, 
because it is a sheltering thing. It protects 
those who take hold of it. Hence we read, 
in one place in the Bible, " The beloved of 
the Lord shall dwell in safety by him." Deut. 
33 : 12. The Bible tells us that God holds 
his people in the hollow of his hand, and 
keeps them as the apple of his eye. Can any- 
thing be safer than that which is held in the 
shut-up hand of God ? Can anything be more 
sheltered than the eye of God ? 

When Satan wanted to injure the patriarch 
Job, because he was such a good man, he 
found that God had put a hedge about 
him, and about all that he had, on every 
side, so that he could not get near him, 
nor touch a single hair of his head, till God 
gave him leave. And God does the same thing 
for all his people. They are all safe in his 
care. " The tree of life," of which they have 



216 THE GREAT PILOT. 

taken hold, is a sheltering tree to them. A 
converted Indian was one day attacked by a 
savage, who presented a gun to his head, ex- 
claiming, " Now, I'll shoot you, for you speak 
of nothing but Jesus." The man replied, " If 
Jesus does not permit you, you can't shoot 
me." The savage was so surprised at this 
answer that he dropped his gun, and went 
home in silence. 

During a time of religious persecution a 
good Christian minister was fleeing from his 
enemies, who were seeking to put him to 
death. In trying to escape he entered an 
empty house and crept into an oven, to hide 
himself. As soon as he was in, a spider 
came and wove its web across the mouth of 
the oven. When his pursuers were search- 
ing the house they passed hastily by the 
oven, without stopping to examine it. " Look 
at that spider's web," said one of them ; " noth- 
ing has gone in there for several days." Oh, 
how easily God can shelter his people ! 

Even people who are not Christians them- 
selves often feel that it is a safe thing to be 
among true Christians. 



A TREE OF LIFE. 217 

Some time ago a lawyer, from Philadelphia, 
was travelling in one of the Southern States. 
He had been riding all day, and night came on 
before lie could find a public house to stop 
at. He was obliged to kirn into a house, on 
a solitary plantation, and ask for shelter and 
lodging for the night. He was invited to 
come in and share their fare. In the course 
of the evening he thought he saw something 
in the master of the house which he did not 
like. His suspicions were awakened, and he 
began to feel uncomfortable. At length he 
was led to the chamber in which he was to 
sleep. It was a room adjoining that which 
the family occupied. He had a large sum of 
money with him, and he began to think to 
himself that perhaps the people he was stay- 
ing with were bad, dishonest people. " Here 
I am," said he to himself, " in this lonely 
place. If these people choose to murder me 
while I am asleep, and take my money, what 
is to hinder them ? I can get no help here, 
and in the darkness of the night I cannot get 
away ! " Of course, thoughts like these made 



218 THE GREAT PILOT. 

him feel very uncomfortable. He resolved to 
barricade the room, and sit up all night, so 
as to be ready to defend himself as well as he 
could, in case he should be attacked. He 
fastened down the windows, and against the 
doors he piled up tables and chairs and ev- 
erything that was movable in the room. 
While he was thus engaged, the sound of a 
voice speaking in a low tone, in the next 
room, fell upon his ear. This increased his 
alarm. He thought, to be sure, they were 
whispering their plans together for his de- 
struction. He placed his ear to the keyhole, 
but it was the voice of prayer that he heard. 
The family were kneeling before the mercy- 
seat, and the father was leading them in 
prayer. As he was stooping with his ear to 
the keyhole, he heard these words, in a low, 
earnest voice, — "0 God, bless the stranger 
whom thy providence has brought to lodge 
beneath our roof to-night." When the prayer 
was over, the traveller rose from his stooping 
position. And oh, what a change had come 
over his feelings! His fears had all van- 



A TREE OF LIFE. 219 

ished. He removed the barricade which he 
had piled up against the door, and felt en- 
tirely at ease. For though not a Christian 
himself, he knew that the prayers of Christians 
are like guardian angels to the place in which 
they are offered up ; and he went to bed, and 
slept soundly and sweetly, feeling that the 
house where God was feared and worshipped 
was a safe house to sleep in. The father of 
that family had taken hold of the tree of life, 
and he found shelter in it. It sheltered him; 
it sheltered his family ; and it sheltered the 
stranger who lodged beneath his roof, even 
though he had not taken hold of that tree 
himself. The first thing we find in religion, 
on account of which it may be compared to a 
tree of life, is shelter. 

The second thing we find in religion, consid- 
ered as a tree of life, is food. 

Of course, I am speaking of food for the 
soul, and not for the body. The things that 
religion furnishes are intended chiefly for our 
souls. Religion does good to the bodies of 
men, but its principal blessings relate to our 



220 THE GREAT PILOT. 

souls. And the food which this tree of life 
furnishes is food for the soul. 

We are not accustomed, in this country, 
to think of trees as furnishing us with our 
principal supply of food. When we talk 
about food for our bodies, we think about our 
markets, with the abundance of meats and 
vegetables which they furnish ; or of the fields 
where the grain grows on which we depend 
for our bread. But this is not the case in all 
places. There are some countries where the 
people depend mainly on the trees, for their 
supply of food. 

In the South Sea islands there are two 
trees on which the natives rely chiefly for 
their food ; these are the bread fruit tree 
and the cocoa-nut tree. The bread fruit 
tree is a very remarkable tree. Its fruit is 
a large green berry, resembling a cocoa-nut 
or melon in size and form. When ripe, this 
fruit becomes soft, tender, and white, ahd re* 
sembles the inside part of a loaf of wheat 
bread. Its taste is very much like that of a 
roasted potato. It is usually cut into several 



A TREE OF LIFE. 221 

pieces, and roasted or baked, in an oven, in 
the ground. This fruit furnishes the princi- 
pal article of food, to the inhabitants of the 
Society and other South Sea islands. An 
agreeable drink is also obtained from the 
fruit of this tree. 

The cocoa-nut tree we know more about 
than we do of the other tree we have just 
been speaking of. Its trunk shoots up to the 
height of fifty or eighty feet, without any 
branches below the top. The nuts grow at 
the top of the tree in bunches of eight or ten. 
The tree blossoms about once in six weeks 
during the rainy season, and every time it 
produces a fresh crop of fruit, so that each 
tree yields about a hundred nuts a year. 
The kernel of the nut, or the soft white sub- 
stance on the inside of the shell, furnishes to 
the natives a wholesome article of food, while 
each nut contains one or two pints of a sort 
of juice or milk, which makes air agreeable 
drink. 

These trees, you see, furnish to the natives 
of the country in which they grow, both meat 



222 THE GREAT PILOT. 

and drink. They may truly be called trees of 
life to the people of those islands. They de- 
pend on them to support the life of their bodies. 

And just such " a tree of life " religion is 
to our souls. It furnishes us with our supply 
of food. It gives both meat and drink for our 
souls to live upon. You know that, when the 
children of Israel were travelling through the 
wilderness, God fed them with manna. It is 
calculated, that, to feed all that great company, 
over ninety-four thousand bushels of manna 
were required every day. And yet, for forty 
years, or fourteen thousand six hundred days, 
this large amount was furnished day after day, 
and never failed. That manna represented 
Christ. He was the tree of life which fur- 
nished all that great multitude with the food 
their bodies required. 

Then God made a stream of water to burst out 
from a rock for their use. That stream followed 
them about, as they went from place to place, so 
that they always had water to drink. And this 
stream represented Christ. He was a tree of 
life to the children of Israel in the wilderness, 



A TREE OF LIFE. 223 

because he furnished them food. The meat 
and the drink on which their bodies lived all 
came from him. And Jesus is a tree of life to 
our souls for just the same reason. He is 
called " the true manna." He is compared, in 
the Bible, to both bread and water. Jesus 
calls himself, in one place, " the bread that 
came down from heaven." And he says, 
that those who eat of this bread will " never 
hunger," and that they " will live forever." 
And then, in another place, he says he will 
be, in his people, like " a well of water, spring- 
ing up unto everlasting life." 

Thus we see that Jesus is both meat and drink 
to his people. You all know what food and 
drink are to the body. You eat bread and drink 
water, and they make your body strong, and 
keep it alive. And just so when we think about 
Jesus, and love him, and believe on him, then 
our souls may be said to feed on him. He 
becomes meat and drink to them. He makes 
them strong, and keeps them alive. Most of 
you, perhaps, have read a very sweet tract called 
"The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain." The 



224 THE GREAT PILOT. 

name of that pious shepherd was David Saun- 
ders. In talking with a friend, one day, he 
said, " I have led but a lonely life, in great 
poverty. I have often had but little to eat ; 
but my Bible has been meat, and drink, 
and company to me ; and when want and 
trouble have come upon me, I don't know 
what I should have done, indeed, if I had not 
had the promises of this book for my stay and 
support." 

Thus we see that the second thing we find 
in religion, on account of which it may be 
called the tree of life, is food. 

But there is a third thing found in religion 
which makes it proper to compare her to a tree of 
life, and this is medicine. 

Jesus is often spoken of as " the Great Phy- 
sician." His word, the Bible, is the medicine 
which he uses. It cures all the diseases 
which sin brings upon our souls. Hence, in 
one place in the book of Psalms, we read, " He 
sent his word and healed them." Ps. 107 : 
20. One of the names given to Jesus in the 
Old Testament is Jehovah-Rophi. This means 



A TREE OF LIFE. 225 

the Lord that healeth, or the God-man healer. 
The prophet Jeremiah speaks of him as 
a physician, and calls his grace, or his relig- 
ion, " the balm of Gilead." Jer. 8 : 22. 

You remember, when the Israelites were 
coming up out of Egypt, they came to a place 
called Marah ; and, when they tried to drink 
the water from the wells there, they found it 
so bitter that they could not drink it. They 
were greatly in need of water, and likely to 
perish with thirst for the want of it. But God 
showed Moses a particular kind of a tree, 
which he told him to throw into those wells of 
bitter, poisoned water. He did so, and im- 
mediately the water was made sweet, so that 
they could drink it with pleasure. Now sin 
has poisoned the sources of our enjoyment, 
the wells out of which our souls must drink. 
The water in them is bitter. But religion is 
the tree of life. If we lay hold of this, and put 
it in the wells of which we drink, it will 
sweeten the waters. It has power to heal all 
the poisonous effects of sin upon our souls. 
When St. John saw the tree of life in the 

15 



226 THE GREAT PILOT. 

golden streets of the heavenly Jerusalem, he 
said it " bare twelve manner of fruits, and 
yielded its fruit every month ; and the leaves 
of the tree were for the healing of the nations." 
And religion, the tree of life spoken of 
in our text, has a wonderful healing power. 
The dying thief took hold of this tree, when 
he was hanging on the cross, by the side of 
Jesus. It did not save his body from dying, 
but, what was far better, it healed his soul 
from the dreadful disease of sin, and made 
him fit to go to heaven. And whenever a 
person's heart is changed, and he becomes a 
Christian, he may be said " to take hold of 
the tree of life," and the leaves from this tree 
heal the wounds which sin has made on his 
soul. 

In the East Indies, they have one of the 
most dangerous serpents known in the world. 
It is called the Cobra de Capello, or the 
hooded serpent. This name is applied to it 
because it has the singular power, when it is 
angry, of raising up and spreading out the 
skin on the back of its neck in such a way as 



A TREE OF LIFE. 227 

to look just as if it had a hood on its head. 
It is not as large as some other serpents, but its 
poison is most deadly. Everything bitten by 
it dies in a very little while. They increase 
and multiply so rapidly that it would be al- 
most impossible for people to live in the 
countries infested by them, if it were not that 
God has provided an enemy to the cobra 
which destroys them in great numbers. 
This enemy is a little animal called in India 
the gentoos. It is something like the weasel. 
It is as active as the monkey, as cunning as 
the fox, and yet as fierce as the tiger. There 
seems to be nothing in the world which this 
little creature likes better than to fight the 
cobra. The moment a gentoos sees a cobra 
he flies at him like lightning, and then a terri- 
ble battle takes place. The gentoos fastens its 
sharp teeth in the neck of the cobra, and the 
cobra writhes and twists itself about, and tries 
to bite its enemy with its deadly, poisonous 
fangs. Presently it gets a chance to do this, 
and darts its fatal venom into the body of its 
tormentor. As soon as the gentoos finds itself 



228 THE GREAT PILOT. 

bitten, it loosens its hold upon the cobra, and 
runs into the woods close by, where it finds a 
plant, the leaves of which have the power of 
acting as an antidote, or healing medicine, to 
the poison of this serpent. He eats one of 
these leaves. This corrects the poison, or ren- 
ders it harmless, and then, like a brave little 
soldier, he rushes at his enemy again, and 
never stops till he has killed him. 

How wonderful it is that God should have 
provided this healing-plant to help the gentoos 
in his conflicts with the cobra ! And yet God 
has done something more wonderful still for 
us. Sin is a dreadful serpent, which we all 
have to fight. Its poison is of the most deadly 
kind. It will destroy our souls forever unless 
it be corrected. But in Jesus we have a tree 
of life, and the leaves of this tree have power 
to heal our souls when they have been bitten 
by the serpent, sin. 

I want to tell you a story about a little boy 
who took hold of this tree of life, and was en- 
abled, thereby, to cure his father of the dread- 
ful disease of drunkenness. This little fellow 



A TREE OF LIFE. 229 

was only about seven years old. His father's 
habits of drinking had made the family poor, 
and their home miserable. One day a person 
gave the little boy a temperance tract. In 
reading over the tract he met with this sen- 
tence : — " If a child have a drunken parent, 
he should go without strong drink for his pa- 
rent's sake." He resolved to do this. They 
were in the habit of having beer on the table, 
to drink, every day at dinner. He asked his 
mother if he might have water to drink, in- 
stead of beer. She gladly consented. For 
days, and weeks, and months, he drank nothing 
but water. Still it seemed to do no good. 
But one day he heard his teacher at school 
say that " nothing we do will accomplish any 
good, unless we pray for God's blessing upon 
it ! " Then he began to pray, every day, that 
God would bless what he was trying to do for 
the good of his father. 

One night, he woke about the middle of the 
night. His father was out at the public house, 
and all the rest of the family were fast asleep. 
He got out of the little bed and knelt down 



230 THE GREAT PILOT. 

and prayed for his poor father. Just as he 
was doing this, his father, who had got in 
with a latch-key, was passing up stairs, in a 
half-drunken state, on his way to bed. Hear- 
ing a noise, as of some one speaking in his 
little boy's room, he stopped to listen, and 
heard his son thus praying, in earnest tones, 
mingled with many sobs and tears; — "0 
Lord, please to bless me ! please to bless my 
going without beer ; and Lord, please to 
bless my dear father, and help him to quit 
drinking strong drink, for Jesus Christ's sake ! 
Amen." 

This short, simple prayer had such an effect 
upon the mind of the father that it sobered 
him at once, and led him to make a vow that 
by the help of God he would quit the use 
of strong drink from that very night. He 
kept this promise so well that he became a 
good and sober man, and his home was one of 
the happiest in all the neighborhood. 

When this little boy became religious, he 
took hold of the tree of life, and his example, 
and his prayers, like leaves from that tree, were 



A TREE OP LIFE. 231 

the means of healing his father's drunkenness, 
that dreadful wound which the serpent, sin, 
had inflicted upon him. And so we may well 
say that the third thing found in religion 
which makes it proper to compare it to a tree 
of life, is medicine. 

But there is one other thing to be found in re- 
ligion on account of which it may be likened to 
a tree of life, and that is company. 

Now, perhaps, some of you will be ready to 
say to yourselves, " Company in a tree ! 
what does this mean ? To talk about shel- 
ter, or food, or medicine in a- tree seems nat- 
ural enough. But to talk of company in a 
tree sounds rather odd? " Let us look at it a 
moment, and see if it is not natural enough. 
Suppose you are in the country, with several 
of your best friends. You are boarding at 
different farm-houses in the neighborhood. 
But you want often to get together, and talk 
over different things, and enjoy each other's 
company. Well, under the brow of the hill, 
or by the edge of the woods, there is a fine, 
large, shady chestnut tree, with benches round 



232 THE GREAT PILOT. 

its trunk. It is a cool, pleasant, shady place. 
You agree with your friends to go there, at a 
certain hour, every day. That is your meeting- 
place. When you think of that old tree, you 
always think, what pleasant company you have 
had there ! Perhaps it is about sundown 
when you meet there, and, as you start to find 
your friends at the well-known spot, you hast- 
en forward, humming to yourself the familiar 
lines, — 

" Come, come, come, — 
Come to the sunset tree." 

You have pleasant company at that tree. 
It is a great thing to have good company. 
But the best company in the world is to have 
God with us, as our father and friend. He is 
the best company, because he can be with us 
at all times. Nothing can separate us from 
him. By night or by day, wherever we are, 
he can keep us company. This cannot be the 
case with father or mother, with brother or 
sister, or any other friend. 

You remember that, when Jesus was about 



A TREE OF LIFE. 233 

to be crucified, we read that " all his disciples 
forsook hiin and fled." Just before this oc- 
curred, he told his disciples that, in a little 
while, they would all go away and leave him 
alone. But he added, " and yet I am not alone, 
for the Father is with me" He had good com- 
pany in him. And so we shall have, if God is 
with us. But when will God come to us, as our 
friend, and keep company with us ? Why, only 
when we take hold of Jesus as the tree of life. 
I mean by this, only when we give our hearts to 
Jesus, and really love and serve him. If we 
consider Jesus as the tree of life, then this tree 
is the meeting-place between God and us. And 
oh, we shall have sweet and pleasant company 
then ! This was what Jesus meant when he 
said, " If a man love me, he will keep my 
words ; and my Father will love him, and we 
will come unto him, and make our abode ivith 
him" Ah ! there must be royal nice com- 
pany, when the blessed Saviour and his adora- 
ble Father are taking up their abode, and 
dwelling in the hearts of persons ! This " tree 
of life " is the place where this good company 



234 THE GREAT PILOT. 

is to be found. If we have this company, and 
really feel that Jesus and his Father are with 
us, we shall never feel lonely, and never be 
afraid. If Jesus is with us keeping us com- 
pany, there is no reason why we should feel 
afraid by night, any more than by day. If 
Jesus is with us, we are just as safe in the 
dark as in the light ; just as safe by ourselves 
as when there are hundreds around us. 

A wife and two little children left home on 
a visit. When her husband came home to tea, 
and sat down at the table with no mamma, 
and no two bright-eyed little girls to love and 
welcome him, strange to say, he did not feel 
alone. He took off his slippers, and sat down 
in his rocking-chair all by himself. He went 
to bed. There was the empty crib, but still he 
did not feel lonely. He got up in the morn- 
ing, and ate a solitary breakfast, and yet there 
was no loneliness. He had the society of 
sweet and pleasant thoughts about his absent 
loved ones. He seemed to feel his God and 
Saviour very near to him, and this made good 
company for him. And yet he was very much 



A TREE OF LIFE. 235 

surprised at himself. He expected to have 
felt very lonely when his family were all 
away. Of course, he missed them very much, 
but he had no lonely feeling ; and he hardly 
knew how to account for it. The first letter 
he received from his wife, however, explained 
it all. She told him that on the evening of 
the day on which they had left home, just as 
she was about to kneel down and pray with 
the children, before putting them to bed, the 
youngest little girl, only three years old, said 
to her, — 

" Mamma, wont you please tell God that we 
left papa alone ? " 

This was the secret of the comfortable feel- 
ing of that solitary husband and father. His 
wife and children had told God that he was 
alone, and had prayed that he might not feel 
lonely. God had heard their prayer, and it 
was his presence which made him feel that he 
was not alone. 

A gentleman was one day visiting some des- 
titute families in one of the poorest parts of 
London. After climbing a number of stairs, 



236 THE GREAT PILOT. 

which led to the top of one of the houses, lie 
saw a ladder, leading to a door, close up to the 
slates of the roof. He hardly thought any- 
body could be living up there ; but he con- 
cluded to go up and see. On reaching the 
door, he found it so low, that he was obliged to 
stoop before he could enter. It was so dark 
that he could not see distinctly, so he called 
out, — 

" Is there any one here ? " 
" Come in," answered a feeble voice. 
He entered, and found a little boy, all by 
himself, in that dark, wretched home. There 
was no bed, no furniture of any kind. Some 
straw and shavings, in one corner, formed, the 
poor fellow's seat by day and his bed by night. 
" Why are you here alone ? " asked the 
kind visitor. " Have you a father ? " 
" Yes, sir." 

" Have you a mother ? " 
" No, sir, mother's in the grave." 
" Where is your father ? Don't you want 
him to be with you in this dark, lonely 
place ? " 



A TREE OF LIFE. 237 

" No, sir," said the boy, sorrowfully. " My 
father gets drunk. He used to send me out 
to steal, and whatever I stole he spent in 
drinking." 

" Does he make you do so still ? " 

" You see," said the boy, " I went to the 
ragged-school, and I was there taught the 
words, ' Thou shalt not steal.' I was told 
about heaven and hell ; that Jesus Christ came 
to save sinners ; that God punishes the bad and 
loves the good ; and then I resolved that I 
wouldn't steal any more. And now," con- 
tinued the little fellow, " my father himself 
steals, and then gets drunk ; and then he gets 
angry at me, and is cruel to me, and beats 
me, because I wont steal any longer." 

" Poor little boy ! " said the gentleman, feel- 
ing very sorry to hear the boy's sad history. 
" I pity you very much. You must feel very 
lonely here, all by yourself, in this dark 
room." 

" No," said the little fellow, with a sweet 
smile on his face, " I am not alone ; Jesus is 
with me here. I don't feel lonely." 



238 THE GREAT PILOT. 

The gentleman took out his purse and gave 
the boy some money, and promised that he 
would come &nd see him again to-morrow. 

" Stop, sir," said the little fellow, as his 
kind visitor was preparing to go down the lad- 
der, " I can sing." And then he began in a 
sweet, simple strain, to sing the beautiful 
hymn with which he loved to cheer his soli- 
tude : — 

" Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, 
Look upon a little child ; 
Pity my simplicity, 
Suffer me to come to thee ! 

Fain I would to thee be brought, — 
Gracious God ! forbid it not ; 
In the kingdom of thy grace 
Give a little child a place ! " 

The gentleman was so touched with the lit- 
tle boy's sad tale and destitute condition, that 
the next day he spoke about it to a kind, Chris- 
tian lady. She was very much interested in 
the case, and asked him to go with her to the 
place. This he at once agreed to do. Taking 
along a bundle of clothes, which might be use- 
ful to him, they made their way together 



A TREE OF LIFE. 239 

up the dark stairs of the house, till they 
reached the ladder. On going up the steps, 
and coming to the door, they knocked, 
but there was no reply. They knocked again 
and again, but no reply came ; no voice as be- 
fore, calling, " Come in." The gentleman 
opened the door and went in. There was the 
bed, the straw, the shavings, just as he had left 
them the day before. And there lay the little 
boy on the bed of straw — but he ivas dead ! 
The body lay there, but the spirit had returned 
to God who gave it ! 

Ah ! don't you see, my dear children, the 
tree of life was growing in the dark garret- 
home of that little boy ? He took hold of this 
tree. God met him at the tree. He found 
company at this tree. And so we see that re- 
ligion may be compared to a tree of life, be- 
cause iv e find company in it. 

Now we have spoken of four things that are 
found in religion on account of which it may 
well be likened to a tree of life. The first of 
these is shelter ; the second is food ; the third, 
medicine, and the fourth, company. 



240 THE GREAT PILOT. 

My dear young friends, I have tried to speak 
to you about some of the good things con- 
nected with this tree of life. My object, in do- 
ing this, is to try to persuade you to take hold 
of it. I have pointed out to you the shelter, 
and the food, the medicine, and the company 
to be found in this wonderful tree ; but who 
of you will come and take hold of it, and have 
all these good things for your own ? 

One day, a hunter, in search of game, had 
lost his way in an African forest. He was 
faint and weary. His attention was attracted 
by the strange twittering and chattering of a 
little gray bird on the branch of the nearest 
tree. It seemed excited about something, and 
anxious to attract his attention. When it had 
fairly awakened his interest, it darted before 
him, in wavy lines, still keeping up its inces- 
sant twitter, as if inviting him to follow it. 
He resolved to do so. He followed it till it 
led him to a hollow tree. Hovering over this 
tree a moment, it seemed to point to it with 
its bill, and then, quietly perching on a neigh- 
boring branch, watched his movements. The 



A TREE OF LIFE. 241 

hunter resolved to examine the tree ; and, on 
looking into it, he found that a swarm of wild 
bees had been hiving in that tree, and the hol- 
low of it was well filled with wax and honey. 
He ate some of the honey, and was strength- 
ened, and soon found his way out of the for- 
est. On inquiring of the natives about this 
little bird, they told him it was called the hon- 
ey-bird, and that it seemed to take delight in 
showing people the trees which had honey in 
them. 

My dear children, I want to be like this 
" honey-bird " to you. I want to lead you to 
Jesus, the " tree of life." In him you will 
find that which is " sweeter than honey, and the 
honey-comb." David found it so in his day, 
and it is so still. Oh, seek religion now. 
" She is more precious than rubies." " She is 
a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her." 
Shelter, and food, and medicine, and company 
are to be found in this tree. May God give 
you all grace to take hold of it for Jesus' 
sake. Amen ! 

16 



IX. 



Cfr« %mt %m. 



Do all to the glory of God. — 1 Cor. 10: 31. 



IX. 

go all to i\i 6lorg of (Sob. — 1 Cor. 10 : 31. 

Did you ever see a company of soldiers 
going through their exercises ? Well, if you 
have, you will remember that, after their mus- 
kets are loaded, the officer, who is exercising 
them calls out, " Make ready, — take aim, — 
fire." 

The aim of each soldier is the thing which 
he tries to hit when he fires his gun. 

When soldiers are engaged in what is called 
target-shooting, or firing at a mark, they have 
a large board set up, at some distance from 
them. The surface of this board is painted 
all over in black and white rings or circles. 
In the centre of the board is a small black 
circle, sometimes called the bull's-eye. Every 
soldier, as he takes aim, tries to hit this bull's- 
eye, or black circle, in the centre of the board. 
The aim of the soldier is that which he tries 
to hit with his gun. 

(245) 



246 THE GREAT PILOT. 

And in the same way we use the word aim 
as referring to anything a person undertakes 
to do. If a new scholar enters your class in 
school, and says to himself, as he enters, " Now 
I am going to be the head of this class," and 
if he begins to study his lessons with great 
diligence and care, so as to get above the 
others, then you may say the aim of that 
scholar is to be the head of the class. The 
aim of Christopher Columbus was to discover 
a new continent. The aim of Sir John Frank- 
lin and his companions, who perished in the 
Arctic regions, was to find out a passage by 
sea, from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean. 
The aim of Dr. Kane, in his voyage to the 
north, was to find out what had become of Sir 
John Franklin. The aim of Dr. Livingstone, 
in his long journey through Africa, was to find 
out the best way of carrying the gospel into 
the interior of that vast country. 

There are a great many aims that people set 
before them in this world. Some aim to get 
great riches ; others to get a great name ; and 
others to enjoy great pleasure. But St. Paul 



THE BEST AIM. 247 

tells us of an aim that is much better than any 
of these. He says, " Whether ye eat, or 
drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory 
of G-od" But how can we do anything to the 
glory of God? Readily enough. It is not 
only by great things, such as none but an 
angel can do, that God may be glorified ; it is 
by little things as well. You see, St. Paul 
speaks, in the verse in which our text is found, 
of eating, and drinking, so as to glorify God. 
Of course if it is possible for us to glorify God 
while eating our daily meals, then we may 
glorify Him in everything. We may really 
learn to "do all to the glory of God." 

But when may we be said to eat and drink 
to the glory of God ? Let me show you. 
Here, for instance, is the home of a poor, but 
pious family. The table is spread, and they 
are about to sit down to dinner. The provis- 
ion is very plain and simple. Before they be- 
gin to eat, there is a moment's pause. The 
father of the family clasps his hands and says, 
" Lord, thou art the giver of all good 
things. We thank thee for the food now 



248 THE GREAT PILOT. 

before us. Bless it to our use, and make us 
thy children, for Jesus' sake. Amen ! " Then 
they eat their meal in thankfulness. That is 
eating and drinking to the glory of God. And 
all that we do from a desire to please God, 
and because it is his will, is done to the glory 
of God. Everything that does what God 
made it for, glorifies him. The sun, when 
it rises in the morning, and goes shining 
brightly on its course, glorifies God. The 
moon, when it walks in silent majesty through 
the heavens, glorifies God. The stars, as they 
twinkle in the quiet sky ; the gentle breeze, as 
it sighs through the woods, or ruffles the sur- 
face of the lake ; the birds, as they sing among 
the branches of the trees ; the rains that fall 
from heaven and water the earth ; the dews 
that distil upon the plants ; the little flower 
that opens its beautiful leaves in the corner of 
the garden, and the tender grass that springs 
up unnoticed by the wayside, — all these glorify 
God, by doing and being just what He wants 
them to do and be. And we may all glorify 
him in the same way. 



THE BEST AIM. 249 

There are many aims that people set before 
them in life, many things that they are 
striving to do ; but, to " do all to the glory 
of God " is the best aim. It is so for four 
reasons. To try to glorify God, in all we do, 
is the best aim ; — 

In the first place, because it is the most 

PROPER AIM. 

And there are two reasons why it is so. 
To try to promote God's glory is the most 
proper aim we can have in life, because we 
were made for this. The Bible tells us that 
" the Lord hath made all things for himself." 
Prov. 16 : 4. It tells us again, Rev. 4 : 11, that 
for his " pleasure," or glory, " all things were 
created." Now, what is the most proper thing 
in the world for any person or thing to do ? 
Why, the thing it was made to do. What is 
the most proper thing for boys to do with 
kites ? To fly them. Yes, for they are made 
to fly. What is the most proper thing to do 
with balls, and hoops, and marbles? To 
play with them. Yes, they were made to 
play with. What is the most proper thing for 



250 THE GREAT PILOT. 

girls to do with dolls ? To dress and nurse 
them. Yes, they were made to be dressed 
and nursed. What is the most proper thing 
for a hungry man to do with bread ? To eat 
it. Certainly. Bread was made to be eaten. 
What is the most proper thing for a thirsty 
man to do with cold water ? To drink it. To 
be sure. The water was made to be drunk. 
What is the most proper thing for a tired and 
weary man to do with a nice bed or couch ? 
To lie down and rest upon it. Just so. The 
couch was made to rest on. What is the most 
proper thing for a sick man to do with med- 
icine ? To take it, and get well. Yes, med- 
icine was made for this purpose. What is the 
most proper thing for a rich man to do with 
his money ? Give it to the poor. Yes, God 
gives rich people money for this very purpose ; 
but they don't always use it in this way. 
What is the most proper thing for the sun to 
do? Shine. Yes, God made the sun to 
shine. What is the most proper thing for 
the wind to do ? Blow. Of course ; God 
made the wind to blow. What is the most 



THE BEST AIM. 251 

proper thing for the rain to do ? Come down 
and water the earth. God made the rain for 
this. What is the most proper thing for the 
plants in the garden to do ? To grow for the 
use of men. Yes, God made them for this. 
What is the most proper thing for the grass 
to do ? Look fresh and green, and cover the 
earth like a carpet. Exactly. God made the 
grass to do this very thing. What is the 
most proper thing for the flowers to do ? 
Bloom in beauty, and spread their fragrance 
around. Certainly. This is what the flowers 
were made for. What is the most proper 
thing for cows to do ? Eat grass and yield 
milk. Cows were made to do this. What is 
the best thing for bees to do ? Fly around 
and gather honey. This is the bee's business 
in the world. And what is the most proper 
thing for men, and women, and children to 
do ? To love and serve God. To do all 
things to his glory. Yes, yes, this is so. Men, 
women, and children were made for this very 
purpose. And if all people would try and do 
this, it would make our earth like heaven. 



252 THE GREAT PILOT. 

What is the difference between a good man 
and a bad man ? — between a Christian and 
one who is not a Christian ? — between an 
angel in heaven, and a devil in hell ? It is 
just this ; the good man, the Christian, and 
the angel, each tries to do what God made 
him for. The bad man, the man who is not 
a Christian, and the devil, does not try to do 
what God made him for. That is the whole 
difference between them. 

My dear children, you were made to glorify 
God. This, therefore, is the most proper thing 
in the world for you to do. 

But there is another reason why this is the 
most proper thing in the world for us to do, 
and that is, we can all do it. I don't mean to 
say that we can do it of ourselves. What I 
mean is, that if we begin right, and ask God 
to help us, then we can all do it. There are 
some things we might be asked to do that we 
are not strong enough to do ; some we are not 
rich enough to do ; and some that we could 
not do if we were ever so strong, or ever so rich. 

Suppose soma one should give you a pav- 



THE BEST AIM. 253 

ing-stone, and ask you to crush it to pieces in 
your hand ; or point to a barrel of flour, and 
ask you to lift it up, and carry it on your 
head ; you would say, at once, " I can't do it. 
I haven't strength enough for that." Sup- 
pose some friend should want you to lend 
him five hundred dollars, when five dollars 
was all you had ; you couldn't do it, simply 
because you hadn't got the money to lend. 
But if you only had more strength, you might 
be able to crush the stone in your hand, or 
carry the barrel of flour on your head ; and if 
you only had more money, you might be able 
to lend your friend the five hundred dollars 
he wanted to borrow. Suppose, however, some 
one should ask you to hold your hand in the 
fire, and yet not let it be burned ; this would 
be impossible. If you had all the strength 
of Samson, and all the riches of Solomon, you 
never could do this. But whether we have 
little strength, or great strength, little money, 
or much money, or no money at all, we can 
glorify God. Angels can glorify him in heav- 
en, and men, and women, and children can 



254 THE GREAT PILOT. 

glorify him on earth. All sorts and condi- 
tions of people may do it. Kings may glorify 
Go.d on their thrones, and princes in their 
palaces. Governors and rulers may do it in 
public, and subjects and citizens may do it in 
private. The rich may do it in their splen- 
did houses, and so may the poor in their plain 
ones. The merchant may do it in his count- 
ing-house, the mechanic in his work-shop, and 
the tradesman behind his counter. The far- 
mer may do it as he ploughs his fields, the 
sailor as he steers his vessel over the sea, the 
beggar as he sits by the wayside, and the 
boy or girl however young or however poor, 
if they only believe God's word and try to do 
his will. 

While the yellow fever was raging in New 
Orleans, one summer, a little boy was seen, 
one morning, lying on the grass in one of the 
streets. A kind-hearted gentleman noticed 
him, in passing, and asked him what he was 
doing there. u Waiting for God to come for 
me," said the boy. The gentleman was 
touched by the sorrowful tones of the child. 



THE BEST AIM. 255 

He saw, too, that the fever was already upon 
him. " What do you mean, my child ? " he 
asked. " God sent for mother and father, and 
little brother," said he, " and took them away 
to his home in the sky ; and mother told me 
before she went, that God would take care 
of me. I have no home, and no one to give 
me anything ; so I came out here, and have 
been looking so long up in the sky, for God 
to come and take care of me, as mother said 
he would. He will come, wont he, sir ? 
Mother never told me a lie." 

" Yes, my child," said the gentleman, hard- 
ly able to speak, for his feelings, " God has 
sent me to take care of you. A beautiful 
smile lighted up the child's face as he said, 
" I knew that God would send for me ! " 
That dear child glorified God by trusting in 
him, and God took care of him. 

We are made to glorify God; and we can 
all do it. To glorify God, then, is the most 
proper aim. It is the best aim, in the first 
place, because it is the most proper. 

But, secondly, it is the best aim because it is 

THE MOST PROFITABLE. 



256 THE GREAT PILOT. 

If you are in business, and want to find 
out how much profit you are making, you 
reckon up, what ? Not how much money you 
have taken in and paid out, — how much has 
passed through your hands during the year, — 
but, at the end of the year, when all your ex- 
penses are paid, how much you have left, to 
call your own. And this is just the way in 
which we should judge of the profitableness of 
the different courses men pursue, or the dif- 
ferent aims they set before them, in life. We 
must look at the end of their lives, and see 
what they have left then, if we would know 
what profit they have gained. 

Now let us look at some men who have 
taken a different aim from this we are speak- 
ing of, and then at one or two who have 
taken this aim, and see which are the best 
off at the end of life ; which have made the 
most profit. 

During the reign of Henry the eighth, of 
England, there lived a celebrated man known 
as Cardinal Wolsey. His parents were poor, 
but he contrived to get an education, and con- 



THE BEST AIM. 257 

eluded to enter the ministry of the Romish 
Church. This was before the time of the 
Reformation. Wolsey was a very talented 
man. He became a priest, then a bishop, 
then archbishop, and then cardinal. This 
is one of the highest offices in the Church of 
Rome, next to the pope. Wolsey's aim in 
life was to become pope. He did everything 
in his power to gain this great honor. He 
was the chief minister, and favorite of King 
Henry. The king heaped the honors and 
wealth of the kingdom upon him. He lived in 
a magnificent palace, in the greatest possible 
splendor. Everybody envied him/ Charles 
V., the Emperor of Germany, promised, three 
times, after the death of three different popes, 
to have him elected to that office ; but he 
never did it. At last King Henry became dis- 
pleased with Wolsey. He removed him 
from his high office. He took his honors and 
wealth away from him. Disappointed and 
disgraced, he retired to a monastery, and died 
in sorrow, poverty, and shame. On his death- 
bed he said to one of his friends, " Oh, had I 

17 



258 THE GREAT PILOT. 

but served my God with half the zeal with 
which I have served my king, he would not 
have forsaken me in my old age ! " 

Had Wolsey much profit left at the end of 
life, from the aim he set before him ? 

And then look at Napoleon Bonaparte. His 
aim was to be a great warrior and a great 
monarch. He became a great warrior. And 
what is a great warrior ? A great murderer. 
Napoleon probably killed more people than any 
other man that ever lived. I don't mean, of 
course, that he killed them with his own hand, 
but he caused them to be killed in his wars. 
Yet he covered himself with glory, in the eyes 
of men. Wherever he went, at the head of his 
armies, he conquered. He gained the crown 
of France. Then he went on to gain others. 
He gave thrones away to his relations 
and friends. He played with crowns as a 
child plays with his toys. All Europe obeyed 
his nod, and trembled at his frown. Princes 
and kings thronged his courts. He seemed to 
rise higher, in power and glory, than any mor- 
tal man had ever risen before. But at last 



THE BEST AIM. 259 

there came a change. His throne began to 
totter. Like the frost-work on the window- 
pane, on a winter's morning, when the sun- 
beams fall upon it, his visions of glory all 
melted away. He was defeated at Waterloo. 
Then his power was broken. He was taken 
captive. For years he was a lonely prisoner, 
on a little island in the middle of the ocean. 
His crown was gone. His kingdom was gone. 
His splendid armies and the multitudes of his 
followers were all gone. He who had made 
so many widows and orphans was himself 
deprived of his wife and son. Disappointed 
and chafed, like a chained lion, he became 
weary of life. He was gloomy and melan- 
choly. Well he might be ! He sickened and 
pined for death. " Why," he would some- 
times exclaim, " why did the cannon-balls 
spare me to live and die in this miserable man- 
ner ? I am no longer the Great Napoleon. 
How am I fallen! I, whose activity was 
boundless, whose mind never slumbered, have 
scarcely energy enough left to raise my eye- 
lids ! But then, I was Napoleon ; now, I am 



260 THE GREAT PILOT. 

nothing" And when the hour of death came, 
how sad it was ! A tremendous storm was 
raging as he lay on his dying bed. But he 
was all unconscious. He was dreaming of 
fighting his battles over again. Just before he 
died, he was heard calling on some of his 
generals, saying, — " Advance ! — hasten ! — 
press the charge! — victory is ours." And so 
the spirit of the great warrior, all stained with 
the blood of more than a million of his fellow- 
creatures, went to stand in solemn judgment 
before God ! Who would care to be Napoleon 
then? 

He hit the mark he aimed at ; but was it 
profitable to him? Millions on millions of 
money passed through his hands during the 
business of the day, but when he came to the 
reckoning at night, what had he left ? Noth- 
ing. Yes, and worse, much worse than noth- 
ing. 

Now, let us look at one who set before him 
the glory of G-od, the best aim of which we are 
speaking. Take St. Paul himself for an ex- 
ample. When he became an apostle, he set 



THE BEST AIM. 261 

out to " do all to the glory of God." It cost 
him the loss of all his earthly possessions and 
prospects. His friends all forsook him. His 
enemies were numerous and cruel. They 
persecuted him wherever he went. Stripes, 
bonds, and imprisonments met him every- 
where. He lived a life of poverty and toil. 
But he was as happy as the day was long. At 
midnight, in the dungeon, he could sing for 
joy. He preached the gospel to the ends of 
the earth. He left writings which have been 
a blessing to the world in every age. At last, 
the cruel Nero seizes him, and puts him in 
prison at Rome. He is condemned to die 
a bloody death. But is he gloomy and sad ? 
Do we find the great apostle mourning, like 
the great warrior, over his unhappy lot ? Ah, 
no. The last words he wrote from his prison, 
just before his execution, are words of joy and 
gladness. These are they : " The hour of 
my departure is at hand ; and I am ready to 
be offered. I have fought a good fight ; I have 
finished my course ; I have kept the faith ; 
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of 



262 THE GREAT PILOT. 

righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous 
judge, shall give me." Paul hit the mark he 
aimed at. And when he came to reckon up 
his accounts at the close of the day, he found 
himself, — oh, how rich in the gain he had se- 
cured ! Aiming to" do all to the glory of 
God " is the best aim because it is the most 
profitable. 

It is the best aim, in the third place, because 

it is the MOST SATISFYING. 

People often aim at things which yield them 
no satisfaction even when they get them. 

There was a miserly man in England, some 
time ago, who resolved to be rich. With great 
effort and self-denial he increased in wealth, 
till he was worth several millions of dollars. 
Then he hit the mark he had aimed at. Yet, 
when the owner of all that money, he wore 
clothes so ragged that he would sometimes be 
mistaken in the streets for a common beggar. 
He would often start from his sleep at night, 
exclaiming, " My money ! my money ! You 
shan't rob me of my money ! " In the midst 



THE BEST AIM. 263 

of his millions he lived and died in the great- 
est misery. 

Catharine, the Empress of Russia, hit the 
mark she aimed at, when she was married to 
the Emperor ; but she found herself so unhap- 
py in her position that she busied herself in 
building a splendid palace of ice to keep her 
thoughts from dwelling on her own misery. 

Lord North, a celebrated statesman of Eng- 
land, tried for years to rise to the position of 
the prime-minister. This is the highest office 
in the kingdom. That was the thing he aimed 
at. He obtained it. When the king gave 
him the seal of office he said : " Here, take 
this, you will find it heavy " Afterwards this 
gentleman confessed to a friend that he hardly 
had one happy or contented moment all the 
time he held that office. 

Some years ago there was a lady in Eng- 
land, known to all the nobility and gentry of 
the kingdom as Lady Hester Stanhope. The 
object that she aimed at was to be known as a 
fashionable beauty. She was perhaps the most 
beautiful woman in England, and very proud 



264 THE GREAT PILOT. 

of her beauty. She was rich too, as well as 
beautiful. Mr. Pitt, the great statesman, was 
her uncle. She was a great favorite with the 
king. She was invited to the palaces of the 
great. Princes and nobles admired and praised 
her beauty. She hit the mark she aimed 
at. But was she satisfied ? No. She found 
herself so unhappy that she resolved to quit 
her native country in disgust. She retired to 
a solitary place in a foreign land, and built 
herself a sort of palace. There she lived far 
from the world, and far from happiness. 

Years after, she was visited there by one who 
had known her in England as " the fashionable 
beauty." But what a change had come over 
her ! " She began to cry, and wring her 
hands," says this person. " Look on me ; " 
she said, " what a lesson I am of the vanity 
of this world ! Look at this arm, all skin and 
bone, so thin that you may see through it. It 
was once so round and plump that you could 
not pinch the skin up. My neck was once so 
fair that a pearl necklace scarcely showed 
upon it. Men, not fools, but sensible men, ad- 



THE BEST AIM. 265 

mired my neck and skin, and said, I might 
well be proud of them. What would they say 
if they could see me now, with my teeth all 
gone, and long lines upon my face ? I am but 
a worm, a poor miserable thing ! " What an 
illustration this woman affords of that passage 
of Scripture which says, " Beauty is vain, 
and favor is deceitful." She hit the mark she 
aimed at, but she found no happiness in it. 

About a hundred years ago a rich planter 
died in the West Indies. He had but one 
child, a boy about ten years old. To him the 
dying father left all his immense fortune. The 
income of his estate was about half a million 
of dollars a year. This went on increasing 
till that boy, whose name was William Beck- 
ford, became of age. He was then, perhaps, 
the richest man in the world. He was cer- 
tainly one of the richest. But he held and 
used his money without any thought of pleas- 
ing or glorifying God. He aimed to be 
known and distinguished by the magnificent 
style of his living. He hit the mark he aimed 
at, but see what satisfaction he found in it. 



266 THE GREAT PILOT. 

When he travelled, he travelled like a king 
with a great company of followers. He 
always sent on beforehand and had the rooms 
he was to occupy, fitted and furnished in the 
grandest possible manner. The splendid man- 
sion which his father had built for his resi- 
dence in England, at a cost of over a million 
of dollars, did not suit him ; so he resolved 
to pull it down, and build one that should be 
the pride and wonder of England. He set 
this before him as his aim. He made that 
splendid palace his idol. It was known as 
Fonthill Abbey. Almost every laborer in the 
county was employed upon it. Between four 
and five hundred men were kept at work upon 
it both night and day till it was finished. The 
night laborers used immense numbers of 
torches, which made it look like a fairy scene. 
Beckford's principal delight was to watch the 
progress of the work. He would go, at night, 
to some high part of the grounds, and spend 
hours in watching the strange sight of the 
dancing lights, and the reflection of their glare 
from the surrounding woods. 



THE BEST AIM. 267 

When the Abbey was completed he built a 
great wall, nearly twenty miles in circumfer- 
ence, all around his grounds. Within this 
scarcely any visitor was allowed to pass. Per- 
mission was refused to princes, and even to the 
king, when he wished to visit it. There he 
dwelt alone, in sullen grandeur. Painting 
and statuary, all that art and skill could fur- 
nish, or wealth could procure, was employed 
to beautify and adorn the place. Gold and 
silver vases dazzled the eye, and cabinets, and 
ornaments of every kind, enriched and spark- 
ling with jewels and precious stones, from 
the ruby to the diamond, were there in the 
greatest profusion. 

Yet, splendid as his palace was, Beckford 
was unhappy in it. He had everything that 
wealth could purchase. But wealth cannot 
purchase happiness. This was wanting in 
Fonthill Abbey. Beckford hit the mark he 
aimed at, but he was not satisfied. And then 
a change passed over that magnificent scene. 
There came what business men call " a crash," 
" a money crisis," in the West Indies. The 



268 THE GREAT PILOT. 

princely fortune of that foolish man melted 
away, like a snow-wreath in the summer 
sun. He was plunged in debt, and difficult- 
ies. The gate that would not open to the 
king was obliged to open to the sheriff. Font- 
hill Abbey was sold. It has since crumbled to 
decay. A heap of rubbish is all that now re- 
mains of its former grandeur. The owner of 
it just saved enough from the wreck of his 
fortune to keep him from want. He spent a 
miserable old age at a watering-place. No 
body loved him ; nobody cared for him, nobody 
pitied him. He hit the mark he aimed at, but 
he found no happiness in it. You would not 
call a man satisfied who should dream that he 
was rich, or great. It seems like real riches, 
or greatness, which such a man has. But when 
he wakes up he finds it was only a dream. 
And it is just so with people who do not love 
God. This life is all a dream to them. When 
the dream is gone, all they have will go with 
it. 

But those whose aim is to serve and glorify 
God, find so much happiness in his service 



THE BEST AIM. 269 

that nothing can tempt them to quit it. David 
said, he u was abundantly satisfied with God's 
service." The prophet Habakkuk said, " Al- 
though the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither 
shall fruit be on the vines ; the labor of the 
olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no 
meat ; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, 
and there shall be no herd in the stalls ; yet I 
will rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of 
my salvation."' Paul was so well satisfied 
with Christ that he thought it a great gain to 
have him, though he lost all he had in the 
world besides. The martyrs were so well sat- 
isfied with the service of Christ that neither 
whips nor chains, neither prisons nor dun- 
geons, neither torture nor death, could induce 
them to give it up. How thoroughly satisfy- 
ing that martyr must have found the service 
of Christ who could say, even while his body 
was burning at the stake, " It is a small 
thing to die once for Christ : if it might be, I 
could wish I might die a thousand times for 
him ! 

An aged minister had spent his life in the 



270 THE GREAT PILOT. 

service of Jesus, trying " to do all to his 
glory." On his death-bed he used these 
words, ■ — "Oh, that I had all the world 
around me, that I might tell them of Jesus. 
Had I ten thousand tongues and ten thousand 
hearts, and were they all employed in praising 
Jesus, I could not tell half his preciousness ! " 

Those who truly love Jesus feel that they 
are rich in having him, though they have noth- 
ing in the world beside ; and they know, too, 
that without Him they would be poor if the 
whole world belonged to them. Aiming to 
" do all to the glory of God " is the best aim 
because it is the most satisfying. 

But there is still another reason why this is 
the best aim, and that is because it is the MOST 

LASTING. 

You all know what it is to drink mineral 
water. How fresh and sparkling it is when 
first drawn from the fountain ! This we call 
the effervescence of the mineral water. But if 
you let it stand for a little while, this all passes 
off; then the water becomes flat and tasteless, 
and you don't care about drinking any more of 



THE BEST AIM. 271 

it. You have all seen a locomotive drawing 
a train of cars. The motion of the train de- 
pends upon the steam in the boiler ; and the 
steam in the boiler depends on the fire in the 
grate. So long as you keep up a good fire, and 
a full head of steam, the engine works easily, 
and the train goes bounding on its way. But 
put out the fire in the grate, and what then ? 
Why, then you will have no steam in the boil- 
er ; and then the engine will have no power, 
and the train will stop. 

Now, just what the effervescence is to the 
mineral water, and just what the fire is to the 
locomotive, a good aim or object is to us in 
life. And the trouble with most people is, they 
don't aim high enough. They set some object 
before them which cannot last ; and when 
they have hit the mark they aimed at, when 
they have done the thing set before them, then 
the effervescence goes off from the water they 
are drinking ; the fire goes out in the engine 
to which they are attached : the train drags 
heavily for a while, and then stops. They 
have nothing else to live for, and they feel no 
interest in anything. 



272 THE GREAT PILOT. 

Alexander the Great set out to conquer the 
world. That was the aim he set before 
him. He did conquer the world. He hit the 
mark he aimed at ; and then, we are told, he 
cried because he had no more worlds to con- 
quer. Then the sparkle and foam went off 
from his glass of mineral water. Then the 
fire went out from his locomotive. He took 
to drinking and died. 

And this is the case, more or less, with all 
worldly aims. They are not long enough, or 
high enough. They don't last. As soon as 
we hit the mark we aim at, as soon as we 
reach the object set before us, we get tired, 
and restless, and want something else. The 
sparkle and the foam go off from the water we 
are drinking. The fire goes out in our locomo- 
tive, and the train drags heavily on, till death 
comes and stops it. " We aim too low, if we 
aim below the skies." But, if we set out to 
serve Jesus, if we try to " do all to His glory," 
then we have an aim high enough, and last- 
ing enough to serve us while we live. Then 
we have something that will make the glass, 



THE BEST AIM. 273 

out of which we drink, always fresh and 
sparkling. Then the fire in our locomotive 
will never be put out while we live. No, nor 
after death, even. For then we shall go and 
drink from the fountain of life. And the 
water of that fountain never loses the foam of 
its freshness. Then we shall serve God day 
and night, without weariness, or pain, or sor- 
row, forever. This is the best aim because it 
is the most lasting. 

Thus we have four reasons why glorifying 
God is the best aim. It is so, because it is the 
most proper ; because it is the most profit- 
able ; because it is the most satisfying ; and 
because it is the most lasting. 

I hope, my dear children, you will all set this 
best aim before you, and live " to the glory 
of God." But remember one thing ; if you 
really desire to do this you must begin by giv- 
ing your hearts to Jesus, and becoming Chris- 
tians. This is the first step to take. If you 
would " do all to his glory" you must begin 
here. You can't do anything to his glory till 
this is done. No service of ours can please or 

18 



274 THE GREAT PILOT. 

glorify Him till we repent of our sins, and be- 
lieve on Him, and love Him with all our 
hearts. This is the right way to begin. If 
we do this He will help us to serve Him truly. 
He will teach us the way in which, " whether 
we eat, or drink, or whatsoever we do, to do 
all to the glory of God." 



X. 



Cfxe Ifjeafoenig |jtotne* 



I go to prepare a Place for you. — John 14 : 2. 



X. 

3 go to prepare a glace for gou. — John 14 : 2. 

Suppose that you and I were children be- 
longing to a family living in England. And 
suppose that our father had come over to this 
country to purchase a farm, and build a house 
and barn upon it, and get everything ready to 
make it a comfortable home for us. Before he 
went away, he told us that as soon as he got 
it all prepared he was going to come back and 
take us all there, that we might live with him 
in that new home. If this were the case with 
us, how much interest and pleasure we should 
take in thinking and talking about that home 
in America, which our father was getting 
ready for us, and where he was going to take 
us to live, one of these days. And when we 
received letters from our father, telling us about 
that home, — how large the farm was which 
he had bought, — where it was situated, — how 

(277) 



278 THE GREAT PILOT. 

much of the land was in woods, and how 
much was cleared, — what sort of fruit trees 
were growing on it, — what kind of buildings 
were on it, — how the country looked around, 

— the character of the people living in the 
neighborhood, — and various other particulars, 

— how carefully we should read those letters ! 
How often we should take them out and look 
over them again ! And what great delight we 
should find in talking among ourselves of 
everything that our father had told us about 
the home to which we were going. 

Now, my dear children, if we love Jesus, 
we belong to a great family, of which he is 
the head or father. He has left his family 
in this world, and has gone to the heavenly Ca- 
naan to prepare a place for us, a blessed, happy 
home, in which we are to live with him forever. 
When that place is ready, — when that home 
is finished, — he will come back again to this 
world and gather all his family together, and 
take them to live with him in that glorious 
home which he is preparing for them. And 
while he is away from us, Jesus has sent us 



THE HEAVENLY HOME. 279 

many letters, in which he speaks to us about 
that home. These letters tell us a great many 
wonderful things connected with our heavenly 
home. The letters which Jesus has written to 
us have been printed and bound up together. 
They make this wonderful book which we call 
the Bible. When you read a chapter in the 
Bible, you are reading one of the letters which 
Jesus has written to us, from that world to 
which he has gone, and where he is preparing 
for us our everlasting home. The words of our 
text are taken from one of these letters. Here 
Jesus says, " I go to prepare a place for you. 
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will 
come again and receive you unto myself, that 
where I am, there ye may be also." The 
place which Jesus is preparing for us is our 
heavenly home. Our sermon, to-day, will be 
about The Heavenly Rome. I wish to speak 
of four different things which Jesus has told 
us in his letters about this home. 

And the first thing that I would speak of 
which Jesus has told us about this home, is its 
size. 



280 THE GREAT PILOT. 

Many homes in this world are very small. 
The poor man's home may be a hut or cabin, 
so small that we wonder how his family can 
turn round in it. Sometimes the home of a 
whole family will be a single little room, or 
perhaps only the corner of a room. And 
even when these homes are not actually small 
in themselves, they may yet be small compared 
with the number of persons who desire to get 
into them. 

There is Girard College, the home for or- 
phans ; you know how large a building it is, 
with those splendid white marble columns all 
around it. Yet that college is kept full all the 
time, and there is not room enough in it to 
hold all the children that want to get into it. 
And then there is the Church Home, and the 
Southern Home, and the Poster Home. These 
are very large buildings. But they are all full. 
And yet how many hundreds of poor children 
there are who have no homes ; and there is 
not room enough in any of these homes to 
take them in. Now the question is, can there 
be any danger that this will be the case with 



THE HEAVENLY HOME. 281 

our heavenly home ? Are we sure it will be 
large enough to hold all who are going there ? 
What has Jesus said in his letters about the 
size of the home he is preparing for us ? This 
is a very important question. Let us see what 
answer we can find to it. 

There are two places in his letters in which 
Jesus speaks about this very point. Just be- 
fore our text in this 14th chapter of John, 2d 
verse, Jesus says : " In my Father's house are 
many mansions" Here he compares heaven 
to a large house or building, with a great 
many rooms in it. And when he says in the 
text, " I go to prepare a place for you," it 
means that Jesus is now getting a room or 
mansion in this great house, made ready for 
you and for me, if we love him, and for each 
of his people. Every true servant of Jesus 
may take up the language of the beautiful 
hymn we sometimes sing, and say, 

" He is fitting up my mansion, 
Which eternally shall stand ; 
For my stay shall not be transient 
In that holy, happy land." 



282 THE GREAT PILOT. 

And if that heavenly home is so large, and 
has so many mansions in it, and if Jesus is 
preparing one there for each of his people, we 
need have no fear about there not being room 
enough for us when we get there. 

But there is another place, in one of his let- 
ters, in which Jesus speaks more particularly 
about the size of our heavenly home ; I mean 
in the last two chapters of the Bible. There 
is more said about this home here than in 
all the rest of the Bible put together. In 
this place heaven is compared to a city, and 
the exact size of it is given to us. Here 
Jesus tells us that this city will be twelve 
thousand furlongs each way, in length, and 
breadth, and height. How many miles will 
this make ? We can easily tell, by a little 
sum in simple division. You know there are 
eight furlongs in a mile. Divide twelve thou- 
sand by eight, and it gives you fifteen hun- 
dred. Fifteen hundred miles will be the 
length of the city, fifteen hundred miles the 
breadth of it, and fifteen hundred miles the 
height of it. But this is such a city as no- 
body ever saw or heard of. 



THE HEAVENLY HOME. 283 

And this is just what the Bible says. When 
speaking about heaven it tells us that no eye 
has ever seen, no ear has ever heard, and no 
miud has ever thought of such things as Jesus 
is preparing for his people in their heavenly 
home. It is three hundred miles from Phila- 
delphia to Pittsburgh. Now, suppose that you 
and I should start in a carriage to go from 
Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, or from Boston to 
Philadelphia, or from London to New Castle. 
And suppose that we should travel thirty miles 
a day ; it would take us ten days to get there. 
But the length of one of the streets that runs 
through this heavenly city is five times as great 
as the distance between any of the two places 
spoken of. 

Now, suppose that you and I were at the 
gate of this heavenly city. There is a golden 
chariot standing there. An angel invites us to 
get in, and ride through the city. We get 
in, and are driven along at the rate of thirty 
miles a day, gazing in wonder at everything 
we see. It takes us fifty days to ride through 
just one single street. When we get through 



284 THE GREAT PILOT. 

we ask the angel if we can ride round the 
outside of the city. He tells us we may. 
He takes us in his golden chariot. There are 
four sides to the city. Each side is fifteen 
hundred miles long. The distance round it, 
therefore, is six thousand miles ! We travel 
thirty miles a day, and it takes us two 
hundred days to go just once round the city. 
Oh, what a wonderful place that must be ! 
How wonderful for its size. 

People have been going into it for six thou- 
sand years. All the children who have died 
have gone into it. All who loved and served 
Jesus have gone into it. And yet we need 
not fear but that there will be room enough 
for us. Jesus knows just how many people 
are going into it; The Bible tells us he has a 
great book, called the book of life. In that 
book are written the names of all who are 
going into this heavenly home. And Jesus is 
preparing a place for every one of them. If 
you and I love Jesus it is certain that our 
names are written in that book. It is certain 
that Jesus is preparing a place in that heavenly 



THE HEAVENLY HOME. 285 

home for each of us. It will be our own home. 
Our names will be graven upon it. The white 
robes that we are to wear, the crowns of glory 
to be put on our brows, and the palms of vic- 
tory to be placed in our hands, are all there, — 
as the Bible says, — "reserved in heaven for 
us ; " and when Jesus comes again he will 
give them to us. He will put each of us in 
the place he has prepared for us — the man- 
sion he has fitted up for us — in our heavenly 
home. Thus, the first thing about this home 
that Jesus has told us of is its size. 

The second thing that he has told us about this 
home, is its riches. 

It is the richest house, or city, or home 
that ever was built. When Jesus describes 
it in the last letter he wrote about it, he only 
mentions three things out of which the whole 
city is built; these are gold, and pearls, and 
precious stones. 

When men build houses or cities, they must 
have a great many materials, of different kinds, 
to put into them. They need bricks and mor- 
tar, and wood and stones, and iron and brass, 



286 THE GREAT PILOT. 

and lead and glass, and various other things. 
If we should engage a carpenter to build us a 
house, and should tell him not to use anything 
but gold, and pearls, and precious stones, like 
diamonds and rubies, he wouldn't know what 
to do. He could use some pearls and precious 
stones to ornament the parlors with, when the 
house was done ; but, as for making a house out 
of these things, that he never could do. Earth- 
ly houses only have those parts that are seen 
finished off, beautifully. The foundations, and 
other parts not seen, are made of very coarse, 
rough materials. But it is very different with 
the house or city which Jesus is preparing as 
our heavenly home. The foundations of this, 
down to the very lowest of them, are made 
of nothing but precious stones. Bach of its 
gates is cut out of one vast pearl. The walls 
and streets of the city are all made of pure 
gold, and nothing else. Just think of a city 
paved with gold ; where the people walk on 
gold, and where the gold is as fine and trans- 
parent as glass, so that you can see through it. 
How poor and mean the most splendid pal- 



THE HEAVENLY HUME. 287 

aces of earthly kings become when compared 
with this ! Louis XIV, the King of France, 
built the palace of Versailles, which cost two 
hundred millions of dollars ; and yet that is 
only like a stable, or a cow-shed, compared to 
the heavenly home which Jesus is preparing 
for us. 

A New Zealand chief, whose name was 
Tamahana, visited England a few years ago. 
He had become an earnest Christian, was very 
fond of his Bible, and had his heart very much 
set on that glorious home, which Jesus is pre- 
paring for his people. One day a gentleman 
took him to see a very beautiful mansion, one 
of the most elegant and costly in London. 
The gentleman expected to find him very much 
astonished and delighted with its splendor and 
magnificence. To his great surprise, however, 
Tamahana seemed to be very little interested 
in what he saw. Then the gentleman began 
to call his special attention to the costly furni- 
ture, brought from all parts of the world, — to 
the beautiful views from the windows, and so 
on. The New Zealander heard him for a 



288 THE GREAT PILOT. 

while iii silence. Then he looked round, and, 
pointing to the beautiful walls, he said, — 

" Ah, my Father's house finer than all 
this ! " 

" Your father's house ! " exclaimed the 
gentleman, who knew that his father lived in a 
poor mud cottage. 

" Yes," said Lamahana, " my Father's house 
finer than this." 

And then he took a New Testament from 
his pocket, and began to read some of St. 
John's description of this heavenly home, in 
the last two chapters of the Bible. And if our 
hearts were only properly set on that glorious 
home we should feel just as this heathen chief 
did. Oh, if all the water in the ocean were 
turned to gold, and every grain of sand upon 
its shore were a pearl or a diamond, it would 
be nothing compared to what Jesus has laid 
out on the home he is preparing for us. The 
riches of that home are wonderful. This is 
the second thing that Jesus has told about this 
home. 

The third thing that he has told us of, about it, 

is ITS BEAUTY. 



THE HEAVENLY HOME. 289 

If you ever go to Niagara, you will stand and 
gaze upon it with delight and wonder. But 
when you return home from your visit there, 
if one of your friends should come to you and 
say, " Tell me what Niagara is like ; give me 
a description of it ; " you couldn't do it. 
You could tell how wide the river is, and how 
many feet it is from the top of the falls to the 
bottom. But how Niagara looks, and how 
Niagara makes you feel while you are looking 
at it, you never can tell anybody. 

And it is just so with the beauty of our 
heavenly home. If you were to go and see it, 
you couldn't tell about it. When the apostle 
Paul was on earth he was taken up to heaven 
once. After he came back I suppose his 
friends expected him to tell all about what he 
had seen. But he never did. He couldn't do 
•it. He said it was impossible. The beauty 
of that home is so great that nobody can de- 
scribe it. 

There is a great deal of beauty in this 
world. A day in spring, when the leaves are 
bursting open, and the flowers are coming out, 

19 



290 THE GREAT PILOT. 

and the birds are singing, and the air is 
balmy, and the sun is bright, — a day in spring 
is beautiful. The rising sun or the setting 
sun is beautiful. A moonlight night is beau- 
tiful. The world is full of beauty. And yet, 
this world is only the prison-house in which 
God keeps his disobedient children. And if 
God's prison-house is so beautiful, what will 
his palace be ? 

See, here is a beautiful shell. Look, how 
finely it is polished, how richly it is colored ! 
No king ever had the walls of his palace as 
beautiful as this. And yet what is this shell ? 
It is the home which God made for a poor, in- 
significant little fish to live in. And if God 
can afford to make a home so beautiful for his 
fish to live in, what sort of a home will he 
make for his children to live in ? Speaking of 
this home, in one of his letters, Jesus says, 
" Glorious things are spoken of thee, thou city 
of our God ! " Psalm 87 : 3. In another 
place he calls it, " the perfection of beauty" 
We have no perfection of beauty here in this 
world. Here the ripest fruit will have some 



THE HEAVENLY HOME. 291 

speck upon it. The sweetest rose will have a 
thorn on the stem, or a worm at the heart of 
it. The brightest sky will have a cloud upon 
its surface. The sun itself has dark spots 
upon its face. There is something or other to 
mar the beauty of all our brightest things in 
this world. But there will be nothing to mar 
the beauty of our heavenly home. Everything 
will be beautiful there, and it will be " the 
perfection of beauty." 

" Beautiful Zion built above ! 
Beautiful city that I love ! 
Beautiful gates of pearly white ! 
Beautiful temple ! God its light ! 

Beautiful trees forever there ! 
Beautiful fruits they always bear I 
Beautiful rivers gliding by ! 
Beautiful fountains never dry ! 

Beautiful light without the sun ! 
Beautiful days revolving on ! 
Beautiful worlds on worlds untold! 
Beautiful streets of shining gold ! 

Beautiful heaven where all is light ! 
Beautiful angels clothed in white ! 
Beautiful songs that never tire ! 
Beautiful harps through all the choir ! 



292 THE GREAT PILOT. 

Beautiful crowns on every brow ! 
Beautiful palms the conquerors show ! 
Beautiful robes the ransomed wear ! 
Beautiful all who enter there ! 

Beautiful throne for God the Lamb ! 
Beautiful seat at God's right hand ! 
Beautiful rest ! all wanderings cease ! 
Beautiful home of perfect peace ! " 

The third thing that Jesus has told us of 
about this home, is it beauty. 

The fourth thing that Jesus has told us of 
about this home is its happiness. 

There are many homes in this world that 
are large, and costly, and beautiful, yet there 
is no happiness in them. But the heavenly 
home, which Jesus is preparing for us, will be 
the happiest place in the universe. Jesus 
tells us that there will be "fulness of joy, 
and pleasures for evermore.'' 

But it is not the place that will make the 
people happy in this home. Many persons 
think it will. They think, if they can only get 
to heaven, they are sure to be happy. Heaven 
is & prepared place, and unless we are prepared 



THE HEAVENLY HOME. 293 

to go there, we could not be happy even in 
heaven. 

For instance ; suppose you and I are ad- 
mitted to a beautiful garden. It is full of the 
choicest fruits and flowers. Fountains are 
playing, and rills are running by. There are 
shady walks, and cool grottos, and every- 
thing to make it delightful. The law of the 
place is that everybody there must keep walk- 
ing about. There are multitudes of people 
all walking up and down, and enjoying them- 
selves. Well, you and I are introduced to that 
beautiful garden. But we each have our 
ankle out of joint. Every time we put our 
foot to the ground, it makes us cry out with 
pain. Now, could we be happy in walk- 
ing about that beautiful garden in this state ? 
Of course not. We are not prepared for it. 
We must get our ankle-joint set and made 
strong, and then we shall be ready to enjoy 
the pleasures of that beautiful garden. 

Again ; suppose you and I are introduced 
to the splendid dining-hall of a king's palace. 
The table is covered with gold and silver 



294 THE GREAT PILOT. 

dishes. These dishes are full of the choicest 
delicacies. A great company of hungry people 
are seated round the table. They have been 
helped to the good things before them and 
are eating them with great pleasure. Well, 
you and I are seated at the table, and invited 
to eat whatever we please. But we are both 
sick. A burning fever is preying upon us. 
We have no appetite. The sight of food is 
painful to us. Now, would it be any pleasure 
to us to be present at that feast ? No. We 
are not prepared for it. Only well persons 
and persons with a good appetite, would be 
happy there. And just so it will be in heaven. 
It is not the place that will make the happi- 
ness of heaven, but the preparation for it. 
And there are two things in heaven that we 
must be prepared for; these are, its employ- 
ment and its company. 

The chief employment of heaven is loving 
and serving God. Those who go there sing 
his praise, and do his will, and find their chief 
happiness in doing this. But, unless we 
really love God more than anything, it wont 



THE HEAVENLY HOME. 295 

make us happy to be praising and serving him ; 
and until this is the case with us, we are not 
prepared to go to heaven. 

Suppose that you and I were going to see a 
gallery of beautiful paintings. At the door of 
the place, we meet a blind man waiting to get 
in. We ask him what he wants to go in for. 
He says, he has heard people say they had had 
so much enjoyment there, that he thought he 
would like to go in, and share the enjoyment. 
Well, the poor fellow goes in, and takes a seat 
there. The walls of the building are hung all 
round with the most beautiful paintings. The 
people about him are looking at them with the 
greatest delight. But there sits the poor blind 
man in total darkness. He cannot see the least 
trace of all the beauty that is about him. 
Will he find any enjoyment in going to that 
gallery of paintings ? Not the slightest. And 
what is the reason ? He is not prepared for 
the employment of that place. That employ- 
ment consists in looking at the paintings 
which are there. But the blind man can't see 
them. Therefore he cannot share the happi 
ness of that place. 



296 THE GREAT PILOT. 

Or, suppose that we are going to hear a con- 
cert of sacred music. On sitting down in the 
hall, we are surprised to see, sitting next us, a 
person that we know to be entirely deaf. 
He cannot hear a sound when the loudest 
thunder is bursting overhead. How strange 
that a deaf man should think of going to a 
concert ! But he has read about the pleasure 
of attending concerts, and he has come to 
try it for himself. Well, the concert begins. 
The music is sweet ; it is heavenly. We listen 
to it with raptures of delight. But there is 
our poor deaf friend. His ear never takes in 
a single note. Will it afford him any enjoy- 
ment to go to that concert? No. And the 
reason is that he is not prepared for it. The 
employment there is — listening to music. 
And those who cannot join in the employ- 
ment cannot share in the pleasure of the 
concert. 

And just so it is with heaven. Unless our 
hearts are changed, so that we can find delight 
in loving and serving God, we are not prepared 
for heaven ; and if we could go there in this 



THE HEAVENLY HOME. 297 

state, we should find no more happiness in 
heaven than the blind man would find in the 
gallery of paintings, or the deaf man in the 
concert of music. We must be prepared for 
the employments of heaven if we hope to be 
happy there. 

And then we must be prepared for the com- 
pany of heaven, as well as for its employments, 
if we would be happy there. 

It is not the walls of the building in which 
you live that makes your earthly home, but 
the company of those you love. 

A little boy about four or five years old 
was returning from school one day. He 
bounded into the house, exclaiming, as he 
hung his hat up in the entry, — " This is my 
home! — this is my home!" A lady, on a 
visit to his mother, was sitting in the parlor. 
She said to him, — " Willie, the house next 
door is just the same as this ; suppose you 
go in there, and hang your hat up in the 
entry, wouldn't that be your home as much 
as this ? " 

" No, ma'am," said Willie, very earnestly, 
" it would not." 



298 THE GREAT PILOT. 

" Why not ? " asked the lady. " What 
makes this house your home more than 
that?" 

Willie had never thought of this before. 
But, after a moment's pause, he ran up to his 
mother, and throwing his arms around her 
neck, he said, " Because my dear mother lives 
here." 

It is the presence and company of those we 
love which makes our earthly home ; and it 
is just so with our heavenly home. 

A little Sunday-school boy lay upon his dy- 
ing bed. His teacher sat at the bedside, hold- 
ing the hand of his scholar. 

" I'm going home to heaven," said the lit- 
tle fellow. 

"Why do you call heaven your home?" 
asked the teacher. 

" Because Jesus is there." 

" But, suppose," said the teacher, " that Je- 
sus should go out of heaven ? " 

" Then I would go out with him" said the 
dying child. This dear child loved Jesus. 
He felt that it was the presence and company 



THE HEAVENLY HOME. 299 

of Jesus that would make heaven feel like 
home to him. This would make him happy 
there. And, if we love Jesus as we ought, we 
shall feel so, too. When we think of him 
we shall be ready to say, — 

" 'Tis where Thou art is heaven to me, 
And heaven, without Thee, cannot be." 

And then the holy angels will be our com- 
panions in heaven. And so will all the good 
people we read about in the Bible. Yes, and 
all the good people who have lived since then ; 
and all our own dear friends and relations who 
have loved Jesus here, and died. We shall 
meet them there. We shall all be holy and 
good. We shall have no more pain, or sick- 
ness, or sorrow. We shall never have to part 
any more. That glorious place which Jesus is 
preparing for us will be our home forever. In 
our earthly homes we cannot stay very long. 
Either the house grows old and decays, and 
we have to find another ; or else those we 
love die, or move away, and then it doesn't 
seem like home any more. But this heavenly 



300 THE GREAT PILOT. 

home never grows old, or decays. The Bible 
calls it, " a continuing city," " an eternal 
house," " an unfading inheritance." And the 
loved companions who share this home with 
us will never die, and never change. Oh, 
what a blessed, happy home that will be ! 

Thus we have spoken of four different 
things about this home of which Jesus has 
told us: these are, the size, the riches, the 
beauty, and the happiness of this heavenly 
home, — this place which he is preparing for 
us. 

A little boy was walking in the fields with 
his mother, one day. He looked up to the 
sky and said, " mother, heaven is so far off, 
I'm afraid I shall never get there." 

" My dear," said his mother, " heaven must 
come to us, before we can go to it." He 
didn't understand what she meant. Then 
she told him what Jesus said when he was 
on earth. These were his words : "If any 
man love me, my Father will love him, and 
we ivill come unto him, and make our abode with 
him" Jesus is willing to come into your 



THE HEAVENLY HOME. 301 

hearts. He is standing and knocking for 
you to let him in. And when he comes in, 
he brings heaven with him. He will make 
a heaven in your heart, if you will let him 
come and dwell there. But, if we don't let 
him come and dwell in our hearts here, he 
wont let us go and dwell with him in heaven 
hereafter. " Heaven must come to us before 
we can go to it." Oh, let us open our hearts, 
and ask Jesus to come and dwell in them. 
This will make us happy, in a way that all the 
gold and silver in the world can never do. 
And then let us remember that the Bible con- 
tains the letters which Jesus has written to 
us about our heavenly home. Let us love to 
read those letters. Let us think more about 
that blessed home. And then when we have 
any sorrow or trouble here, we shall find 
great comfort in the thought of that bright 
and beautiful home. 

" Soon will our pilgrimage end here below , 
Soon to the presence of God we shall go : 
Then, if to Jesus our hearts have been given, 
Joyfully, joyfully, rest we in heaven. 



302 THE GREAT PILOT. 

Bright -will the morn of eternity dawn, 
Death will be conquered, his sceptre be gone ; 
Over the plains of sweet Canaan we'll roam, 
Joyfully, joyfully, safely at home.' , 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Abercrombie, Sir Ralph — And the highest honor, . 43 

Aim, The Best — What it is, 247 

Most profitable, 256 

Profitable, Paul an example, . . 261 

Satisfying, , 262 

" Examples, . . . 269 

Lasting, 270 

A Good — Like effervescence to mineral water, . 271-2 

Aims in Life — Many and various, 246 

"Worldly — Not profitable — Examples — Woolsey, 251 
Napoleon Bonaparte, . . 258-60 
Not satisfying — Examples — 

Catharine of Russia, . 263 

Lord North, . . 263 

Lady Hester Stanhope, 264 

William Beckford, 265-8 

Aim, The Soldier's — What it is, .... 245 

Proper — To do what we are made for, . . 250-1 

Alfred the Great — And the beggar, .... 52 

Angels Happy — Because satisfied with God's choice, . 12-13 

Barber, The — And the Sabbath, 55-8 

Birds and Fishes — Happy because satisfied with God's 

choice, 15-16 

Brown, Rev. John — And his parishioner, . . . 98-9 
Boudinot, Elias — The wonderful preservation of, . 172-3 
Bitter Waters — Sweetened by religion, . . . 225 

(303) 



304 INDEX. 

Captain, The — And the lap dog, .... 135-6 

Casabianca — Lost because his father was not near, . 142-4 

Cobra dje Capello — And the gentoos, . . . 226-7 

Cocoanut Tree, The — Usefulness of . . . . 221 

Company — In a tree of life, 231-2 

Continuance — Wanting to earthly happiness, . . 27 

Christian, The Dying — Happy, .... 59 
Company — Secure to a father — how, .... 234-5 

Covenanters — Saved from the dragoons, . . . 167-8 

Doing for Jesus — Will not save us, .... 36 
The benefit of, .... 37 

The profit of, 51 

Drunken Father — - Saved by a little boy, . . . 228-30 

Essex, Earl of — And the ring, 144 

Evils, All — God's people saved from, . . . . 171 

Evil Men — " """.... 165 

Evil Spirits— " " " . 157 

How Job was saved from, . . 158-62 

Farmers — The two, 99-100 

Forever — Illustrations of the length of, . . . .29-30 
Friend, The Ablest — Jesus is, .... 133 

The Oldest— " " 127 

A — Bad to be without, 123-4 

Friends, Our — How old they are, 125-6 

Food — Found in trees, 220 

Giving Gold to Jesus — Anecdote of a poor woman, . 50 

Gobut, Bishop — In the hyena's den, .... 177 

Saved by a hyena, . . . 178-82 

God— Both little and great, 189 

Glorified — In nature, how, .... 248 



INDEX. 305 

Glorifying God — What all can do, . . . . 252-4 
Glorify God — How a little boy did, .... 254-5 
Glorifying God — A proper aim, .... 249 

Handsome Soul, The — Anecdote of, . . . . 81-2 

Happiness — On what depends, 17-19 

Happy — How children can make people, . . .115 

Hill, Rowland — Saved from the robber, . . . 169 

Honey-Bird, The — What it does, 240-1 

Homes, Earthly — Not large enough, . . . 280 

Home, The Heavenly — Its size, 279 

How long to ride through it, . 283 

" " " round it, . 284 

Its riches, .... 285 

The materials of which it is made, 286 
The New Zealand Chiefs idea of 287-8 
Its beauty can't be told, . . 289 
Its happiness not dependent on place, 292 
Its employments must be prepared 

for, 293-6 

The happiness of in its company, 297 

Jacob — What he did for Rachel, 48-9 

Jesus — How much he has done for us, . . . . 37-8 
How easily he made the world, . . . . 38 
What he did for our redemption, . . . 39-40 

Doing for, a pleasure, 47-50 

Able to help by great things, .... 133-4 

" " little things, . . . 135-40 

Name of, the alphabet of the Bible, . . . 192 

" " never fully known, .... 192 

" " full of power, 193 

Power of name of, example of — Paul, . . 193-4 

20 



306 INDEX. 

Jesus — Power of name of — Examples of — Greenland Mis- 
sionaries, .... 195 
" " to make rich, .... 196 

" " ■ to make people love him, . 199 

" " " " happy, . . 202 

Name of, never changes, 204 

Meat and drink to his people, . "' . . . 223 

Alone but not lonely, 233 

Name of, opens treasury of heaven, . . .199 

John Newton's Dream, 24-6 

Judgment, The — What Jesus will do for this people in, 36 

How Jesus will come for, ... 35 

Joseph — How, was purified, 156-7 

Kindness — Shown by words, 128 

" " actions, 130 

Of Jesus — Shown by his words, . . 129 

u " " actions, . . 132 

Kitto, Dr. — - His love of trees, 211 

Letters — From an absent father, the interest in, . . 277 
From Jesus — About our home, where found, 279 

Manna, The — Amount of consumed by the Israelites, 222 

Mary and Martha — Different ways of showing their love 

to Jesus, .... 10-11 

Medicine — In a tree of life, 224 

Meekness — Of great price in God's sight, ... 87 

Makes those who have it happy, . . . 73-4 
" Others happy, .... 75 

Effect of— Tom Tucker, . . . .76-78 
Makes beautiful — illustrations, . . 79-80 
Examples of, • 68 



INDEX. 307 

Meekness — The ornament that Jesus wore, . . 69-71 

A useful ornament, 72-4 

Merlin, The Minister — Saved by a hen, . . 174 

Ministry, The Office of — The highest on earth, . 46 

Missionary, Moravian, The — And the leprosy hospital, 131 

The, — And his reward in heaven, . . 60 

Moravian, The — And the pirate, . . 265-7 

Miser, The — Never satisfied, 262 

Mistakes, The — Men often make, 87 

Moore, Bettie — And the little coffin, .... 116-18 
Mothers — What do for their children, .... 47 

Names, Our— Many changes in, 204 

Names — The meaning of, 190 

Name of Jesus — What the Bible says of it, . . 187 

" " The best because so simple, . . 188 

" " " " " So full of meaning, 189 

Near Always — Importance of having a friend, . 142 

Jesus is — Always, 145-6 

Neighbors, The Two — And their chickens, . . . 101 

Ore, Golden — The lump of, and how made pure, . 154-5 

Ornaments — Proof that God likes, .... 87 

The different kinds of, ... 64-7 

Ornament, The Best — Grows in beauty, . . . 84-5 

Worn at all times, . . 83 

Pambo and his Tongue, 97 

Peace, Prince of — One of the names of Jesus, . . 93 

Philosopher, The — And the Christian, . . . 53-4 

President, The — And his friend, .... 44-5 
Prince, The — Saved by a spider and a fly, . . . 175-6 
Polycarp and the Martyrs — Examples of the power 

of the name of Jesus. 200-1 



308 INDEX. 



Portions, Worldly — Uncertainty of— Example in a 
young physician, 

Quaker Gentleman, The — And his pears, 
Queen Victoria — And the honor of doing for her, 



Ragged Tom — The surety, 
Rowland Hill — Saved from the robber, 
Religion — Compared to a tree of life, . 
A sheltering thing, 



Safe House, A — To sleep in, .... 

Safety — Our efforts to secure, .... 
The efforts of the heathen to secure, 
How God meets our feeling for, 
The secret of, what it means 

Sailor, The — And his diamonds, .... 

Satan — A chained lion, 

Scholar, The Teasing — And the peaceful temper, 

Surprise, The Pleasant, 

Soul, The — How much it needs to satisfy it, . 

Shelter in a Tree, 

In Trees — The Africans find, 
In a Tree — Charles II. found, . 

Sheltering Thing, A — Religion is, . . 

Shelter in Religion — Examples of, 



Taste, A Peaceful — The Third T, .... 110 

Tastes — The meaning of, 110-11 

Temper, Peaceful, A — The second T, . . . . 104 
Thieves, The Forty — The story of, . . . . 196-7 
The Three T's — That Jesus gives, 
Tongue, A Peaceful — The first T that Jesus gives, 96 



23-4 

102-3 
41-2 

106-9 
169 
212 
215 



217 

151 

152 

152 

152-3 

88 

164 

104-5 

112-14 

19-22 

213 

214 

214 

215 

216-19 



INDEX. 309 

Tom Tucker — The effect of meekness on, 76-8 

The Tongue — The evil done by, .... 96 

Tree, A — A beautiful object, 211 

Trees — Dr. Kitto's love of, 211 

Tree op Life, The — In Eden and in heaven, . . 212 

A — Keligion compared to, . . . 212 

Tree, The Bread — And cocoanut, .... 20-21 

Uncertainty — Of worldly portions — Example of in a 

young physician, • 23-4 



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